Amalgamation/Chapter 1
AMALGAMATION
By Jay Fox
CHAPTER I.
The Growing Power of Capitalism
IN a civilized society there would be no conflicting economic interests. There would be nether master nor slave, employer nor employee, rich nor poor. Where these distinctions exist civilization is merely a name, for there is bitter conflict between the rich employers and the wealthless workers; and this conflict increases in intensity in exact ratio to the concentration of wealth and power on the one hand and the corresponding increase of poverty and knowledge on the other. This conflict Of interests in society has come to be known as the class struggle.
This war of the classes has raged throughout the ages. It is not a spectacular war, not always have the participants even been conscious of their parts in it. It is nevertheless universal and bitter, and all play their parts in it. It is the teal perpetual World War out of which all other wars have sprung. The class war will not end by one party defeating the other. Labor defeated will rise again. Capital licked will make terms and resume the exploitation of Labor. The class struggle end when the causes that give rise to it are removed. The economic structure of society must be remodeled before the basis for a real civilization can be laid. That is the work of Labor organized in its unions and equipped with the necessary knowledge. Armed with knowledge and power, Labor will change the economic basis of our common life and establish justice and equality where exploitation and misery now reign supreme.
The Free American Workers
According to the moral ethics of our capitalist society the owners of the means of life are under no obligation to see that their fellow beings, who do not possess such means, are provided with the opportunity to make a living. When the capitalist cannot make profits out of the labor of the workers he turns them out, cuts off their source of bread without the least compunction. They may starve to death for all he cares. He is not their keeper except while they keep him in fat dividends. When he needs more help he makes the announcement at the factory gate where there are plenty of free Americans anxiously waiting to serve him. They are free Americans—they cost him nothing. That is the only sense in which Americans are free today.
While differing in many respects from previous forms of exploitation, capitalism is no less cruel and merciless. The capitalists own the means by which we live and thus we are ad their mercy in no less degree than were our ancestors in the days of chattel slavery. The kings of old ruled the world with an iron hand, but they had a much smaller world to command than the Industrial Monarchs of today. The wealth of America exceeds that of the entire ancient world, and a few brainy men in New York City control the bulk of it; as cold and unscrupulous a set of men as ever dictated the policies of a nation.
The rulers of old hired thugs to pursue and capture their enemies, had them slugged and cast into prison, framed up evidence and put them through farcical trials before fixed judges who condemned them to imprisonment or death as the order was given above. Wherein does the practice of today differ from that, with the history of Labor's desperate struggles against the armed hirelings of Capital and the slaughter of men, women, and children in the great strikes at Pittsburgh in 1877; and later conflicts in Homestead, Chicago, Lattimer, Cripple Creek, Ludlow, Michigan, West Virginia, and numerous other places where the ruthless slaughter Of workers was looked upon as merely a matter of business? To pursue the analogy further we might glance over the list of recent trials of a socio-political nature where social heretics have been brought before the courts and convicted on perjured evidence and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment by hand picked judges. The jails of the country contains hundreds of such victims, martyrs to the cause Of humanity, men and women who dreamed of a better life than that which capitalism provides. Modern capitalism leaves a trail behind it as bloody as that of its predecessors and a record of cruelty and injustice just as black.
The Beginning of Capitalism
Modern capitalism had its beginning with the discovery of steam power and the invention of machinery. Before the advent of machinery the workers owned their hand tools and worked mostly in their own homes. The development of machinery soon left the hand workers without employment and they had to seek work from the capitalists who owned the costly machinery. Thus they became dependent upon the employers, who were not slow to take advantage of their new-born power. Spurred on by visions of wealth and aflluence the new capitalists began at once to exploit Labor to the limit. Without organization, the helpless workers were compelled to labor sixteen hours a day.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century factory workers a to be on the job at 4 A. M. and work until dark for a wage that was a mere pittance. A first class mechanic got 50c a day. Laborers worked for three and four dollars a month and board. Women toiled in the cotton mills from dawn till dark for $1.50 a week. The cost of food was not low in proportion to wages. M/heat was $2.10 a bushel, corn 75c a bushel. Pork sold for 20c a pound and bread was 8c a loaf. Thus it will be seen that as an exploiter of labor, capitalism made a good beginning, and the precedent then established has been loyally adhered to ever since. Every atom of energy that Labor possessed has been coined into dollars, and we have today the doubtful distinction of being the richest country in the world, while millions of our workers are without the means of life.
The modern factory is an evolution, a growth, an amalgamation of individual craft shops into great industrial units. When capitalism was young and inexperienced every trade had its separate existence and its separate owner, and each owner and employer was the keen competitor of every other man in his line of work. In those days competition was said to be the "life of trade," the incentive to capacity production without which men would stagnate and deteriorate. However, modern capitalists have discovered the utter fallacy of that idea, and have discarded it, after suffering tremendous losses through its ruinous application. But they still believe in it for working people, however, and insist most emphatically upon the application of its principles in their factories by the crushing of unionism amongst the workers. The policy of every man for himself and to hell with the hindmost is held to be the ideal condition for the workers. As for themselves, the capitalists prefer, the communistic idea of getting together into a compact organization.
Industrial Unions of the Capitalists
The first stage of the capitalists' getting together came when they discovered the economy and efficiency of the industrial factory. In the manufacture of a machine the products of several trades are necessary: draftsmen, patternmakers, moulders, blacksmiths, machinists, etc. Why not gather all these crafts together under one roof and one management? The idea was ideal from every viewpoint. It was adopted, and the industrial factory was born. Capitalists have always been quick to adopt new and valuable ideas. Therein lies their success. The workers, on the contrary, are suspicious of new ideas and slow to approach them. This accounts for the fact that after nearly a century of capitalist success in the application of the industrial idea the workers still adhere to the primitive craft union form of organization, although it is carrying them to destruction day by day.
The industrial factory was soon followed by the industrial corporation, which is really an industrial union of dollars. It was necessary that the small craft owner, displaced by the industrial factory, be taken into the industrial union, so the joint stock company was created. This was a most important development in the evolution of modern, capitalism. In the early stages when capital was scarce it made it possible for people with small means to become share-holders in big corporations. Thus the industrial managers were given access to large amounts of money necessary to the success of their dreams of industrial conquest.
Under, this system gigantic corporations were formed which gave their managers almost unlimited power over the workers in their employ and all others who came within the sphere of their influence. For it is a truism that a capitalist's power is measured by the amount of capital he controls, and that the men who control capital, control the means by which the people live. All opposition to the will of the new industrial monarchs has been ruthlessly crushed. The craft unions were the first to get the sword. The unions, still in their primitive form, became an easy prey for the big corporations. Not only did these refuse to recognize the unions but they ferreted out the union men that were working under cover and discharged them. When goaded to the limit of their endurance by the soulless corporations the workers struck. A private army recruited by the bosses from among the criminals and thugs of the slums and fully equipped with modern implements of murder was let loose upon them with orders to kill. Police, militia, and mounted cossacks were generally on hand to help the private gunmen terrorize the workers and drive them back to their slavery.
Capitalism Controls the Government
Not satisfied with their domination of local political and commercial life, where they are absolute masters despite our democratic form of government, the industrial monarchs have succeeded in corrupting our State and National Governments, over which they hold sway as absolute as any monarch that ever ruled the ancient world. A hundred years ago it was said by the wisest students of social economy that under our "democratic" form of government it would be impossible for a group Of rich men to get control of the government. Time has shown that little is impossible to the possessors of wealth. Men without wealth succumb to its influence. Lofty principles are fine but they don't supply their champions with the necessities and comforts of life. The masses without organization and economic education are misled by the press, to vote for the men selected by the money power. All politicians seek to curry favor with the capitalists who have the money to reward them. The politics of this republic are run by men who have made politics a profession, a means of gaining a livelihood, and their ethical code is so elastic it permits them to accept money from whatever source it happens to come. This is because the interests of the capitalists are served in every branch of the government. To all intents and purposes the Government of the United States is a branch of the associated industries. Whatever the industrial monarchs desire it to do, it does; even to the plunging of the people into a bloody war. An illuminating commentary on our democratic form of government is the fact that in every presidential election since 1860 the successful candidate has been the one with the largest campaign fund—furnished by the masters of industry.
Likewise the control of our educational institutions has passed into the hands of the industrial monarchs. Every university in the country is ruled absolutely by the corporations who furnish the funds, for its upkeep and expansion, and they see to it that nothing is taught which might lead the students to suspect that the present industrial system is less than perfect. The teacher who dares to hint at any social heresy knows his fate. Nothing but the approved brand of canned learning is taught and the student who emerges after three or four years of cramming is generally a full fledged plutocrat and snob, despising working people as lowbrow servers.
Nor do the children of the working people escape the polluting influence of plutocracy. The school books are published by the book trust. The state makes the rules governing the schools. In the country districts we are permitted to elect the school boards, but they have nothing to do with the education of the children except to hire the teachers and do the janitor work. In the cities there are no working men on the school boards. Bankers and business men oversee the education of the worker's children. As a result it often happens that children learn to despise the proletarian ideas of their parents.
Even the church not Immune to the poison of capitalism. Nowhere do we hear it raising its heavenly voice against the rapacity of the money power. On the contrary, it almost universally looks upon criticism of capitalism as heresy; and the clergyman who has the temerity to espouse the cause of Labor will soon find himself without a pulpit. If the founder of Christianity were to come amongst us today and preach a sermon such as he delivered when in the flesh, he would be arrested under the criminal syndicalist law and sent to prison for a term of years. Like all other institutions the church is subject to its source of income. It has its function to fulfill in the system, and the exploiters Of the people furnish the funds to pervert it from its normal course. To capitalism nothing is sacred but itself. Its motto is: "Only the Servers Shall Survive."
But of all the institutions that have come under the sway of capitalism, the press is by far the worst enemy of the people. This is because it is the great avenue for the distribution of news. It comes into daily contact with the people and subtly poisons their minds against all ideas Of change. It thus tends to keep them in perpetual bondage to the plutocracy. It is the moulder of public opinion and the chief avenue of propaganda for the powers that be—it is the mouthpiece of money. In return for this servility it receives the advertising patronage of big business, without which it could not exist. Obviously the press has full liberty to wield its scurrilous pen to the limit in attacking working people who refuse to accept the capitalist system as heaven-sent, and it is common knowledge that it takes full advantage of every strike and other expression of discontent with things as they are, to malign the toilers and to incite police and mob violence against them. But the workers have not the same freedom to reply. Special laws have been devised by the henchmen of capital in control of the "people's" government for the suppression of the people's press and the punishment of editors and speakers who have the hardihood to expose the rottenness of the capitalist system and advocate a change. Freedom of speech no longer exists in this country because the people have no control over the government. It is now the pliant tool of the plutocrats, doing their strong-arm work in return for campaign funds and other forms of graft. Capitalism is master of the world today.