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 1,700,000in 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, ANDOF 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....AConciliation 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?
