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Newspaper Page Text
SATURDAY, OCT. 23rd. 1920. THE TOILER PAGE 12 Increased Production (Translated from "Umanita Nova" by F. A. Blossom.) "More production!" say the reformers. And we, too, say "More production." But we want to know first for whose benefit it will be and what things we are to produce. And we want to know, also, why there ;.s not enough produced for everybody. Some people say that there cannot be a revolu tion because production is insufficient and we would be in danger of starving to death. We say there must be a revolution, so that we may be able to produce and put an end to the chronic semi-starvation of the greater part of the population. No one will deny that production, especially of the things of prime necessity, is insufficient to satisfy the needs of all. This is a 'universal and permanent condition, inevitable under the Capital ist system, and it can be remedied only by chang ing the system. The Waste Of War. The war, with its enormous waste of wealth and labour, brought the scarcity of available pro ducts to such a point that the Capitalists themselv es are alarmed over it, realising that the workers are no longer inclined to resignation. The Capital ists are now demanding that the situation be sav ed through thv"! efforts of the workers. But the workers are tired of toiling for others. They remember that, when they used to submit meekly to being exploited without limit by the bosses, they were no better off than they are at present. There have never been enough of the good things of life even in normal times, even when there was said to be an abundance, even in those so-called over-production crises which threw the workers out of work. The poor, hungry, the ill-clothed, the homeless, when they see the stores heaped with food and clothing, when they gaze at the spacious mansions of the wealthy few, are easily persuaded that there is an abundance of everything, and that, if it was shared in common, there would be enough for all. But the fact is that, if you take into account the countless masses who are insufficiently nourished, who are clothed in rags and who live crowded in filthy hovels, it at once becomes clear that this apparent abundance comes solely from the fact that the vast majority of the people do hot consume enough. It is natural that this should be so. Production For Profit Only. Since the means of production (land, machin ery, factories, etc.) belong to a small number of persons, who use them to employ others and get a profit off their labour, it follows that production increases as long as profit increases and that it is arbitrarily stopped when its further' increase would tend to diminish profits. In other words,, the employing class allows production only of as much as they can sell with profit, and shut off production as soon as their profit or hope of profit stops. That is why the entire economic activity of society is regulated, not by the desire to satisfy the needs of all. but by the interests of the own ers and their competition in older to keep up prices, for the strange spectacle of unemployment even when there are still urgent needs to be filled, for land uncultivated, for the misery and subjec tion of great masses of working people. Under such circumstances, how would it be possible to produce enough for all? The Workers Must Save Themselvs. Even to-day, when the Capitalists for their own salvation have every reason to sacrifice their own selfish desires, their greed, in order to try to calm the wrath of the people by satisfying the most urgent needs of the masses, even to-day, when the most intelligent of the Capitalists ci v aloud the need of increased production, people are out of work, land is poorly cultivated or not cultivated at all, labour is wasted on many things that are useless or actually harmful to the public, the better part of the national budget is sunk in expenditures for war. Capitalism cannot save the workers, and can not even save itself. The workers must save themselves by taking over the management of production and, in order to do this, they must take possession 'of the machinery of production. Therefore, there must be a revolution.