Workmen's advocate., March 02, 1889, Image 2

About Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891

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WORKMEN'S
ADVOCATE,
J(O1?KHWS0At)VOCATt
in orrici al journal or
THE SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY
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Makch
1880.
FIRST THINGS FIRST."
This expression linn been heard
before, utul ban Leon used by others
before us. The question is, what
are "first thintja ?"
Well, each according to bin light.
For us, as Socialists, it would
seem that our l'arty interests should
he first considerations; not because
they are our l'arty interests, but he
cause, if wo really believe what wo
profess, they are paramount consid
erations. Wo have adopted a plat
form nd formed an organization
with laws expressing the intelligence
of our membership, calculated to ad
vance the principles of our Tarty.
And Uiese are first principles, bot
tom principles.
For the sake of sharing with thoHo
who seemed our nearest neighbors,
wo have assisted in tile formation of
other organizations, and in the heat
of our enthusiasm have in many
cases lost sight of Jthe main question.
The recent experience of the San
IVancisco Social tats, reported in
another column by Comrade Willey,
is but a repetition of many such ex
periencoBin various cities, and his
conclusions are the same as those of
many faithful workers in our l'arty.
It is undeniably true that many
labor organizations, or organizations
composed of laborers, have been
brought into existence by the de
voted efforts of Socialists; and the
fact that they have proven anything
rather than beneficial only goes to
show that the mere organization o
1 ! . ' .1
woiKingmen into trades unions is
not sufficient for their ultimate
emancipation. They lose sight o
the fact that the system must be
cnangeu, oui magnify into prime
importance such subsidiary qtiea
uons as come up m ine discussion
of points between their employers
and themselves, and the main ques
tion with them becomes the wage
question how much of their pro
ductshall they have for their share ?
thus acknowledging the wage sys
tem and private capitalism as jht
manent institutions. They .will
even go so far as to antagonize each
other when their jHM-sonal interest is
involved. .Socialists who are mein
btrs of these organizations find
themselves pressed into service, and
the result is that they too are drawn
into the vortex of small contentions.
Each one, then, must decide for
himself as to "first things."' Either
he is a Socialist first or he is some
thing etae first. If the duties per
taining to membership in the Social
ist Party are of secondary import
Mice to the mind of the tyro in labor
reform, then, to be sure, his idea of
"first things," though somewhat
nebulous, will never lead him to
much more than taking active part
in contemptible squabbles in reac
tionary organizations, if he belongs
to mch, or perhaps his activity is
oorianed to his own personal affairs
of still less importance to the
peopK
As for the Socialist Tarty, it will
not fail to appreciate the true com
rades whoso activity evidences their
conception of "first things" as so
cialists, and whose modesty is as be
coming as their zeal in the presence
of and for the Great CuuBe.
"noble" sympathy.
In the Nineteenth Century for
January this year, an article is pub-
ished written by an English noble
man, in wnich the bocial problem is
investigated and an honest attempt
is made to solve the problem from
his point of view. The writer com
mences his article by the following :
"Tlie annually increaHing prenMire of
population on the means of existence
within the liritiHii Isles in forRiiitf men to
eoimider whether there are no remedies
for a btute of tiling whirl) threatens to
ring a coiiMuerahle portion of the tot di
lution into a condition of semi-starvation."
The fact is admitted that there
still is a problem remaining to be
solved, a question which economists
have not attempted to settle, and
which philosophy cannot touch.
Cardinal Manning asserts the
"natural rights" of starving men to
relief from their more fortunate fel-
ows, while others deny that any
laim is the right of the pauper
'J he fact is clear that the present
:oiidition of nations is alarming
from the fact that the non-possessing
class is on the increase, and not only
that, this class is organizing and
educating itself for a definite pur
pose and upon definite lines, and is
resolute, determined and fearless.
The possessing claHs can no longer
afford to be philosophically indilTer
cut. The economics of Mill. Adam
Smith, Walker, and tho gush of At
kinson no longer possess any power
of delusion; something more is
needed.
"We may raise on the ramnartH the
standard of political economy: wo inav
hope to conjure by the urn of great
names and hy high-sounding authori
ties, but on tho eve of battle all will l
in vain, for the foundations of the fort
ress are rotten, and will crumble under
our feet on the first assault of the en
emy." tail of Meath.
Lord Ilorschell recognizes this
fact, and has lately demanded from
the Knglish government a royal
commission to institute an inquiry
;nto tho "causes and extent of pres
ent distress."
Socialism is branded as the mother
of disorder and tho synonym for
chaos; but evidently tho existence
of socialist doctrine is having its ef
fect. In tho foregoing quotation
from the Karl of Meath ho asserts
the foundations to be rotten. So
cialLis assert the same. The pres
ent system will not bear investiga
tion, nor will its advocates defend
it. In discussions between single
tax men, greenbackers and others
and political economists of the or
thodox school, the basis is not re
form or change of foundation, but a
change of administration of the pres
ent system, upon the present basis.
Henry (icorgo would still have a
capitalistic system; he would simply
change the system of taxation.
Schemes of co-operation, tariff re
form, and all measures of similar
nature and import, cannot affect the
cauxe of tho trouble, while they may
to some extent ameliorate tho ef
fects. While a system of laixsez
faire exists, "burning sympathy for
the poor, charity and benevolence,
are but so many chips to be swept
away by the ever increasing ava
lanche of increasing necessities.
The present system permits land
to be held by private individuals
for private profit, that profit being
obtained from the necessities of the
landless population. Owners of
machinery use the increase of the
laboring class to inure and extend
tho law of wages. The standard of
subsistence is lowered continually,
and with it the returns paid to la
bor. In slavery days a man was
the property of his owner; to reduce
him to the lowest margin of exist
ence was to damage the property;
now men and women may live as
they can, starve :ind die; it affects
no one but themselves. Charity
and its numerous adjuncts cannot
and will not in any way affect this
condition of things. Tailors in
sweating Bbops ar known to work
from thirty three to thirty-six hourB
at a stretch, haws regulating hourB
of labor, while lessening the Btrain
on the one side, do but increase it
on another.
Labor-saving machinery iB an all-
important factor in human progress.
but when that factor is used to de
crease tho returns made to labor and
its facility of production is used to
employ the wives and children of
the men no longer profitable and
now become surplus, then a change,
not of administration of that sys
tem, but a chango of system is abso
lutely imperative.
Nothing can remedy matters but
Biich an action; therefore socialism
demands for the people the estab
lishment of a governmental posses
sion of land, machinery, and all
othur properties necessary to tho
common good.
It iB said of socialists that they
would destroy society. Does not the
noble lord himself say that tho foun
dation is rotten that it will fall to
pieces ? Assuredly we desire to recon
struct society upon a scientific basis,
one in which such conditions as he
deplores shall be impossible.
But socialists stand as watchmen,
warn men of the gathering storm;
they tell them there must be a
change, and whether tho world be
lieves them or not, that change is
rapidly being forced to a crisis; they
ask in vain for a Bolution; we pre
sent to them a logical, natural one.
They assert that it involves loss of
caste, destruction of class, abolition
of prmloge, and we assert that these
things are necessarily evil and must
fall. We ask men to be wise and
not to stand in tho pathway of nat
ural development. it.
NOTES.
"What book should I read to en
able me to see tho fallacies of tho
single tax theory." Prof. Oar
Bido answers : " Progress and Pov
erty." Uoes anybody know why Thomas
!. Shearman should be accused of
being iin economist? Surely a man
who says that sacialists want to
"divide everything up'' may plead
not guilty to such a monstrous accu
sation, u.
The French hurgeoisie and anar
chists have their General Boulan
ger; the trades unions in America
have their (Jeneral Secretaries; tho
Knights of Iabor have their General
Master Workman; the "(irand
Army" and American "society"
have their generals innumerable;
and the Socialist Labor l'arty has
its General Vote to settle questions
in dispute.
Millionaire Udand Stanford, of
California, is preparing for a con
vention of the "World's Arbitra
tion League," of which he is tho
President, to be held in "Washing
ton next September, for the purpose
of " inaugurating a reign of univer
sal justice and peace." Inland
might do something towards im
proving the prospects of the era of
peace, but he'll have to change his
politics.
WHAT OTHERS SAY.
TIMID CAl'lTAl..
We are often told by our oppo
nents that whatever good end we
may have in view, our agitation will
work incalculable mischief by fright
ening capital out of the country.
Capital, these wiseacres inform us,
is exceedingly timid, and will onlv
take up its abode where everything
i3 settled and peaceable The least
publio commotion, and capital takes
unto itBolf wings and flies away.
We smile at the picture thus pre
sented to our imagination of the
factory lord packing up his works
and betaking himself, with them to
foreign parts; the landlord Btowing
his broad acres into capacious pock
ets, and the railway shareholder
filling his carpet bagwiih perma
nent way and rolling stock prepara
tory to making a bolt. Our critics,
seeing the Bmile, hasten to inform
us that these things do not comprise
the kind of capital thev mean, and
then they go on to inform us that no
capitalist will invest his money his
capital-where the public mind is
disturbed by a revolutionary agita
tion. Imdon Justice.
Some. humoriBt says he would like
to be present when the water com
pany pays its gas bill and the gas
company pays its water bill. Yes,
it's a funny notion. And no doubt
he would like to seo two pirate ships
fighting as to which shall have the
plundering of the next merchant
vessel they may meet; or two hordes
of bandits fighting for the privilege
of robbing a church or ravaging a
village; or two gangs of railroad
baroiiB struggling to reduco freights
for the benefit of the public; or two
big newspapers abusing each other
solely for the good of the working
classes; or two great anti-Chinese
"statesmen winking at each other,
by telegraph, clear across the conti
nent when there is to he a decisive
vote on Borne exclusion bill, and the
one is not well enough to attend and
tho other is "paired off." Oh,
there's lots of funny things one
would like to see but they don't
come off in public. As for the
water company and the gas company
and their bills against each other,
wo presume that the managers ex
chargo bills, shake hands and, like
two great lawyers dividing their cli
ent's estate, agree to "call it square."
Jlaycs I alley Adwftmr,
WHAT IS CAPITAL?
J-Yeely translated from Lwmtlle's '
liastiat Sehtt-lze von Delitnch.
I Terr
BY F. . KEDDELi,,
KeprlnU'd from London "Justice-"
Continued from lad week.
A Bingle glance at the distinctive
features of this period will show
that they are all summed up in
"free competition." The bourgeois
producer, in industrial as well as in
agricultural production, knows
nothing of particular rights. All
the distinctions and conditions
which arose out of tho recognition
of "rights" have disappeared; in
their place we find the one essential
condition; that of having capital in
hand to make the necessary advan
ces, without which there is no pro
duction. All the old limitations
having been removed the principle
of the division o f labor comes to the
front, and production is divided up
into a never ending series of partial
operations and of productions for
tho world-commerce. All is now
exchange value; everyone produces
that which he does not wjnt and
cannot use; and, as opposed to the
services and the production of value
in use in the Middle Ages, we have
now the products of industry ex
changing with each other in the
money form.
This is as much the case with ag
ricultural as with industrial produc
tion; for the latter form stamps the
character of tho age. Anyone who
now, for example, produces corn
does so not for his own consumption
but for the world-market; and he
can no longer discharge his liabili
ties with the product of his work,
whether he uses largo capital and
incurs great expenses, or is only a
small producer, with liabilities that
press even more severely upon him;
he depends upon the prices quoted
in the great markets of London,
Far is, Berlin and Amsterdam; so
that even in the supply of food he
produces only exchange value, and
the production of use value sinka
into a shadow.
The law of Kicardo that the prices
of. products are regulated by the
cost of production is now in full
force. In the Middle Ages prices
were fixed by the producer, who
could always insist upon a regular
profit. Bur, under the influence of
capital all t'lia is altered. Each one
unuerbide -.he other to obtain freBh
custom or to retain that which he
already has. For the consumer this
is a benefit in the way of cheapness.
I3ut this lowering of prices is only
obtained by an increase of sale; tho
small profit obtained on each article
is only com pensated by the sale of a
larger number of articles. The nat
ural result is that production is car
ried on upon a larger Bcale, with
greater concentration of work, largor
supply of raw material, and an aug
mented output, In other words:
under free competition the greater
the capitalist the more he overpow
ers and swallows up smaller capital
ists.
Ilere we have the productive
power of capital; the pound of to
day produces another pound. Here
also we find the origin of our com
plicated system of credit; the capi
tal which iB in excess of the require
ments of a business, whether tempo
rarily or permanently, is employed
by way of loan, partnerships, sharea,
etc., in other forms of production.
Up to the present we have re-
garaea tne producer simply as a
producer. Let us now look at him
in his two capacities: employer or
contractor, and worker, and distin
guish the particular features which
free competition imposes. The fate
of both is determined by the price
of the product in its sale, and by
tne proDortion of it which free com
petition brings to each. The value
of the product is at first to be found
in the market price; that is, it do
pends at each and every moment
upon the relation between the sup
ply ol tne article and the demand
for it. But this in its turn is sub
ect to the fundamental law that,
in the long run, the price of a prod'
uct is the same as its cost of produC'
tion. Say, for example, that the
supply of an article is so great that
the price falls below the cost of pro
duction, then the production of that
article will either cease or be moder
ated; on the other hand, if the price
of an article he so high as to yield
more than the usual profit, then, by
virtue of free competition, capital
will be attracted to that particular
industry, and the supply will bo in
creased until the price is brought
down to the cost of production.
The market price of a product os
cillates like a pendulum, but with
great irregularities, and its . many
changes very often have unpleasant
and ruinous consequences for the in
dividual capitalist; for he may be
forced to sell his wares when prices
are low, and may not bo able to place
his wares on the market when prices
are high. But this only concerns
the individual; the capitalist class,
as a class, is not affected by it; for it
is at such times that the smaller
capitalists are crushed, and tho su
premacy of large capitals over small
capitals is established.
As regards capital these oscilla
tions in prices compensate one an
other on the average, and not a sin
gle hour of labor, not one drop of
the sweat of the laborer is lost to
capital; they are all paid back to
capital by the consumer. If this be
the position of the capitalist as re
gards the consumer, what is it that
determines the proportion of the
proceeds of the product which shall
come to the worker? What is it
that determines and settles tho
wages of the worker ?
Under the present system of pro
duction the average wages are lim
ited by an iron law to the necessary
means for subsistence, to the mini
mum of food, etc. This has been
disputed by certain political econo
mists. In opposition they assert
that the price of labor is regulated
by the demand for it as compared
with the supply of it. The peoplo
who assert this look upon labor as
they do upon any other kind of
merchandise, and they do this quite
rightly, for it is with lakr as with
merchandise or wares its price is
determined by demand and supply.
But what is it that regulates,
that determines the market price
between demand and supply ? As
we have already seen this is de
termined by the cost of produc
tion. There is only one measure for
everything that comes on the mar
ket, whether it be Chinese porcelain,
American cotton, assafoetida, Circas
sian slave girls, or European work
ers; that measure is to be found in
the demand for and the supply of
the article, and the average relation
of demand and supply is ultimately
determined by the cost of prodnc
tion.
How much, then, does it cost to
produce a worker ? Evidently only
just so much as is required to enable
another worker to obtain the abso
lutely necessary meanB for subsist-'
ence lor mmseir ana nis iamny.
Give him this and ho will provide
the youngster fast enough, though
not, solely, perhaps, for the capital
ist's sake, and will not even require
to be tempted by u profit as do the
producers of other wares. In short,
wages under free competition, or the
cost of production of labor, consist
Bolely of the cost of producing work
ers. Where it is necessary to employ
children in the factories, a fresh
calculation is made. It is very soon
found that tho father does not re
quire the meanB for subsistence say,
for a family of averago number, but
can do with less, as the children
themselves contribute towards their'
own support.
It requires no explanation to show
that of all prod ucers the seller of
labor iB most unfavorably situated
under tho system of competition..
Where would the sellers of other
wareB bo if they could not keep their
produce back when the demand was
Black ? The seller of labor cannot
do this. He must sell. Hunger
compels him. Further, when the
price of labor rises, it only makes
tho lot of the workers ultimately
worse, for it brings about an increase
in the number of the workers.
Neither need we explain how it iB
that no charitable employer can al
ter this. Whoever attempts to do
so is struck .down by the dagger of
competition.
"Under free competition the relation
of the employer to the employed is
the same as to any other merchan
dise. Tho worker is work, and
work is the cost of its production..
This is the leading feature of the
present age. In former times the
relations wore those of man to man;
after all, the relation of the slave
owner to the slave, and of tho feudal
lord to the serf, were human. The
relations in former times were hu
man, for they were those of rulers to
ruled; they were relations between
one man and another man. Kven
the ill treatment of the slaves and
serf 8 proves this; for anger and love
are human passions; and those ill
treated in anger were still treated as
men. Tho cold, impersonal relation
of the employer to the employed, as
to a thing which is produced like
any other ware on the market, is the
specific and thoroughly inhuman,
feature of the Middle Class Age.
The Middle Clasa hate the idea of
a State; they would replace the
State by a Middle Class society per
meated by free competition; for in a
State the workers are still treated as
men, whilst under the Middle Class
regime the workers are like any
other merchandise, and are only
taken into consideration according
to the cost of production,
(To be concluded next week.)
A QUEER COMBINE.
(Continued fvotti. Jirst imge.)
simply get my living, Biich as it is,
for my work.
"You, free trader, claim that
free trade will lessen the cost of
goods, lessen the necessary expenses
of living; but under the operation
of your politico-economic law of
'demand and supply' which un
der free trade is the law of untram
meled cutthroat competition the
employer, unless he changeB his na
ture, will force wages down till they
reach the level of the cost of ex
istence again, and what have I
gained ? As before under protec
tion so now under free trade, I sim
ply get my living, such as it is, for
my work."
Protection, free trade, each is a
see-saw, under present conditions,
and the workingman is kept on the
lower end all the time.
The true solution of the problem,
which we would commend to the
economic politicians (is that it?) of
the Free-Trade-Tariifdleform Con
vention is something like this:
Protection plus wages, minus cost of liv
ing equals tweedledum plus 0.
Free trade plus wages, minus cost of liv
ing ejuals tweedleJee minus 0.
Tariff reform plus wag, minus cost of
living, equals tweedledum plua
tweedledee .minus 0.
Transposing and eliminating:
Protection equals fweedledum.
Free trade equals tweedledee.
Tweedledee equals tweedledum
Tweedledum ) n
Tweedledee equals -0
Feb CHICAGO SOCIALIST.