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'
