GIFT OF 71 A^S A SERIES OF THREE EDITORIALS REPRINTED FROM The DAILY NEWS SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Bolshevik agents are busy in every industrial center. Their work has been denounced by nearly every American journal, but denunciation is not enough. The Daily News is the only newspaper of this coun- try that has undertaken, in language that any man can understand, to make clear the terrific blunders that are the very root of Bolshevik doctrine. These editorials, written by Mr. Eugene MacLean, editor of The Daily News, constitute a major document in the case of Americanism vs. Bolshevism. They are commended to your attention. •*i3 0—^7, qq BOTH the Bolsheviki and the Social- ists preach the "Revolution." By this they mean upsetting the existing order of things entire, and building up a new structure of govern- ment and society. No such plan could add to the happi- ness or welfare of mankind. It would have an exactly contrary effect. The jar of such an upheaval itself means misery, lasting until order again is restored in the course of years. With order restored, under any sys- tem of government either tried or pro- posed, the same old problems remain. * * ♦ These problems are two: Maintaining the freedom of the in- dividual, without interference with his neighbor's rights; Maintaining a supply of food and clothes and shelter for all, and the means to get them. The first requires the exercise of a police power, and the severity or lax- ness of this police power does not de- pend on the NAME or FORM of govern- ment, whether monarchist or republican or bolshevik, but upon the kind of men who control the police. The second requires the continuance r <and growth of industry. No matter what the form of government, industry must continue and expand if aU men are to be employed, and if the human race is to progress. * * * One of the arguments extended to the worker to induce him to join the "revo- lution" is that under the "revolution" he would not be interfere4 with by an arbitrary police. But in Russia, according to the official announcement of the bolshevik leaders, police oppression is b^ing exercised in an extraordinary degree. It is being exerc/sed not only upon W the middle classes, but upon factions within the socialist ranks — upon men * ~ who believe substantially as Lenine and \1 / Trotsky do, but who are opposed to . them personally. Some of these revolu-/^f\ tionists have succeeded in escaping from Russia, like Catherine Breshkovs- kaya, the "grandmother of the revolu- tion." They're escaping, mind you, from 'the revolution which they helped to bring about! * * * There will always be leaders among men. As a rule, the more radical the changes proposed by any movement, the greater is the dependence placed upon leadership. This is true in religious movements, political movements, economic move- ments. Almost always this leadership becomes a form of autocracy. The title of "em- peror" itself is simply the English trans- lation of the Latin name which was given the people's leaders in ancient Rome, when their problem was the re- pelling of invaders and keeping their boundaries clear. These leaders, or em- perors, took the authority of absolute sovereigns over foreign kings and their own people, by exercise of the power first placed in their hands by the Roman people in their hour of need. America has escaped this form of au- tocracy. America could not escape it if any considerable mass of men should join in such a "revolution" as we are dis- cussing here. The very necessity for leadership and instant action on the part of the "revo- lutionists" would make it inevitable. Autocracy in any form means the full- est exercise of the police power, with every man subject to its severest regu- lations. * ♦ ♦ An individual, willing to run the risk 70.Q of future autocracy to k, put across" his own economic views, might figure that he himself vrould escape by ir.iniug tne side that's in power. His figuring would be faulty. In France, after the revolutionists had used up the available noblemen on the guillotine, they began executing each other. The struggle for power was the cause of that. In Germany, when the socialist revolu- tion succeeded, they shot Karl Lieb- knecht and Rosa Luxemburg, socialist leaders. Human nature doesn't change. It's only environment that changes. In Russia, the extreme socialists on top make it hot for the moderates, and use their guns freely in doing it. In Germany, the moderate socialists on top make it hot for the radicals, and they are equally ready with their weap- ons. * * * The American who would risk that sort of thing in his own country is a fool. The police power is exercised more moderately and with greater consider- ation for the average man in America today than it is in Russia, or Germany, or than it could be in America for many a year under any possible "revolution." In after-the-war dealings with various orators, silly blunders have been made by silly little officials, but petty deeds by petty bureau chiefs are not con- fined to any one nation nor to any form of government. It is worth noting, however, that there are no firing squads in America. There is no appeal from a firing squad. * * * What is troubling the average worker, however, is not any question of free speech, but is a question of a livelihood, and better opportunity for himself and his children. The "revolutionists" abroad, and lately in Seattle in our own country, told the workers that under the "revolution" all men would find employment, each re- ceiving the full value of hi3 product without any profit from his labor being taken by another. "The products and industries of the world are ours by right," said one of the Seattle proclamations. These were not put out by trades unionists, but by "revolutionary" groups that tried to take advantage of the gen- eral strike. They were not represented on the strike committee, but, according to the union men, they "butted into" the situation with their propaganda. It was proposed by these "revolution- ary" outsiders that workers in each industry should take over and operate the industry, "abolishing the profit sys- tem." It so happens that there are some in- dustries that pay big returns, some that pay small returns, and some that pay no profits at all. Those that are unprofitable are main- tained by their owners in the hope that they will be profitable some day, and the losses are paid out of the profits of other industries. With profits abolished, the losses in these unprofitable businesses would have to be borne by the workers themselves. The immediate result would be the es- tablishment of greatly unequal returns to workers in the same crafts, but in different establishments. Some would be receiving greatly less than they are now, and some, from inability to sus- tain the industry, would find themselves, for the time being at least, without work. The first thought of the men receiving lesser pay, under the new scheme, would be to get their pay equalized. This would mean that the fellow in the big profitable plant would have to give up a portion of his income to help out the fellow who hadn't enough. Furthermore, he would have to care in some fashion for the man who had no job at all. * * * That's the same problem that we have now — poverty and unemployment. It would be increased by two great factors. One of these would be the men in the so-called luxury manufactures, the mar- ket for whose products would be wiped out. The other is the men and women who have invested their life's savings, and have retired to live on the old-age pension that they have made for them- selves — on the "profit system," in other words, that the "revolution" would wipe out. Los Angeles is full of old folks like that, living on the interest of the farms or the little businesses they ha?e sold. There can be no interest without "profit." What to do with them, and with the worker who is thrown out of employ- ment, and the man who had no employ- ment to begin with? It would be necessary either to make work for them, or to pension them — unless it was decided to let them starve. Either of the first two plans would make necessary the levying of taxes on the employed to take care of the public work to be provided, or the pensions to be paid. » * * We have the machinery to do that now. We don't have to go through a "revo- lution" to provide public works for the unemployed. And we haven't, thank God, knocked out the life savings of old people by abolition of civilization as we know it! * * * There's another thing about the Se- attle-Russian doctrine that "the products and industries of the world are ours by right." Take shipbuilding. It was in the ship- building crafts that a lot of the preaching was done up there. Under that plan, the ships would be- long to the shipbuilders. But there are other crafts with an in« terest in the proposition. There's the rolling-mill man, who makes the steel plates. "The plates are mine!" he could say, with justice, under such a plan. The engine-builders, the miners who mined the ore, the smeltermen who made it into pig-iron, the sailor who sailed the fchips, all could with equal authority make claim to the product or the in- strument of their toil. Naturally there would have to be some adjustment between these interests. * * • There is an adjustment between them right now. We don't have to go through a "revo- lution" to get it. The shipper pays the ship-operator, the ship-operator pays the ship-yard man, the ship-yard man pays the plate* maker and the engine-builder, the ttto of them pay the smelterman, and the smelter pays the miner. The bolshevik retorts: "Yes, but the worker gets only part of the money. The rest of it goes into profits. What we would do is to abolish profits." • • • But in order to extend ship-building, plate-making, engine-building, smelting, and mining, as populations grew and made more ships and steel products necessary, it would be necessary to set aside a sur- plus to make the extensions. In other words, if a larger number of ships were to be built, the new men needed to mine the ore, make the plates, do the riveting, and so on, would de- mand, as their right, that they receive wages just as they do now. If all the proceeds of the other ore, plates, en- gines and ships had been divided, there would be nothing with which to pay the workers while the work was in prog- ress. If the miner had to wait until the new ship was put in service to get the income he had earned, he'd have to wait one whale of a long while. The only solution would be for the "revolution" to set aside part of the proceeds of earlier ships to take caro of the cost of new ones. And that surplus is profit. No matter what name they call it, it's profit all the same. There is profit in the industry now. The profits go into creating new in- dustry, no matter whether they are spent on ships, on automobiles, on shipyards, on rugs, on office buildings. And if private control of these profits and private promotion of new industry with them isn't satisfactory, public own- ership is as possible today as it would be possible in a "revolution." Public ownership is a recognized prin- ciple now. It is actually in operation. The principle will be extended as rap- Idly or as slowly as the majority of the people desire. The point is that the means of getting public ownership is as good now as it could be under a "revolution" — better, for the machinery for getting it has been set up, and is working. * * * Mankind has been painfully piecing together, since the beginning of time, the structure of its civilization. Little by little, it has stopped a gap here, erected a little higher bulwark there, provided a sounder foundation in another place. The best brains of the world, the hopes and aspirations of good men — whole races of men — have gone to build what we have now. The structure cannot be torn down without wreckage and deep suffering for millions. And once torn down, it would have to be erected again, with toil and pain and tears. The man who pulled down his house about his ears because he didi't like the roof would justly be accounted a lunatic. Yet that's what the bolsheviks propose to do. * * * The moving cause of social unrest is contained in two beings: The man who lives in surpassing lux- ury; The man who has not the means to buy bread. Those are two pictures that are al- ways present in the worker's mind. The man who has control of too much wealth for the public good can be dealt with. Under the exigencies of war, the public already has begun to deal with him. The taxing power in the hands of the people of America is absolute. What- ever the majority, through its represen- tatives, thinks should be done about tax- ing millions, will be done. Consider for one second the taxes that now are levied as the result of war — 50, 60, and even 80 per cent on some fortunes ! Taxes are levied by all of us, as a government, upon private property. It takes from the few for the benefit of the many. The majority approves and the taxes are paid. If the people desire to deal further with the question of great fortunes, they can do it now. "Revolution" could not make it more possible than it is now, and "revolution" would exact a heavy price in hunger and suffering from the people to gain a privilege they already have! * * # The problem of unemployment is pres- ent. It has always been present. It is one of the gaps remaining in our structure of civilization that must be filled. It is not necessary to smash civiliza- tion to fill this gap in it. Gaps cannot be filled that way. The same people inhabit the country as would inhabit it under a "revolution." They are equipped with the sajie brains. They have a vastly more capable ma- chinery for handling unemployment, be- cause they haven't created artificial un- employment by wrecking the means of trade. It is admitted that public w rks, a* public expense, is a proper means to relieve unemployment. It is up to the people how far these public works shall go. * * * It is a heartening thing that the ma- jority is awake to the problem, and that it is being discussed in every hamlet and town and country crossroads. When the American people get think- ing along a given line, they get results. We earnestly believe that in another decade involuntary unemployment will be a thing of the past. The farmer, the business man, the worker, all realize that in the fullest degree of employment for every man lies the prosperity of al 1 . One man unemployed, through his in- ability to buy, throws another out of work. Each man employed is a buyer of goods, and a maker of trade — and trade, boiled down to its simplest terms, means work for men to do. The biggest stumbling block in the way of success for this movement for the unemployed is the bolshevik himr self. He frightens away the men and women who want to help the people who need help. He's holding back the wheels of economic progress. It's the good luck of our own land that the bolsheviks are few. Being few, their power for frightening away sup- port for labor is lessened. There are enough of them, however, to make it clear that labor would be nearer the righting of its difficulties if there were no bolsheviks around at all. * ♦ * The strong and skillful always have been able to shift for themselves. Even with the strong man curbed by police power from taking what he wants by force, he is offered what he wants by his neighbors, who desire his help in preference to the help of the mai who cannot do his task so well. He accumulates money, or other things he values — "profit," in other words. It is the weak who need help. It is the weak who would need help under a "revolution." It isn't necessary to turn things upside down to get that problem presented to us. * • ♦ Our problems are many, but they are the problems of humanity. Slowly, but surely, America is solving them. It will be when the last man is dead that the last wrong is banished from the world, but we are progressing toward the goal of the square deal. And The Daily News' politics are these: To stand by America and American institutions; To uphold the right as we understand "W it, and to assail the wrong; To aid all men in getting a fair chance for a livelihood and decent surround* ings and comforts for their dependents; To help the skilled man in securing for himself and his children the savings of his thrift and enterprise; To oppose the taking of an unfair ad- vantage OF any man BY any man; To promote, as best we may, the hap- piness and prosperity of our country- men, to the end that Americans may progress together in the arts and crafts of peace. Second Editorial HY should I work f->r ;he benefit of a fellow who is a stranger to me? Abolish capitalism, and I'll be working for my- self. I'll get the full value of my prod- uct, instead of turning it over to a man I don't even know, getting back only a pittance for my labor." That's the standard argument of the radical socialists — the men whom we usually call bolsheviks or I. W. W. We've heard it 40 times, in one way or another, and most workingmen have heard it. The propagandists see that the workingmen DO hear it. ♦ * * "Why should I work for the benefit of a fellow who is a stranger to me?"- Because that's the only way you can make your labor of benefit to yourself, brother. There are two means of escaping work for the benefit of the other fellow. No. 1 is not to work at all. No. 2 is to go off in the woods by yourself, dig your own roots to eat, knock over your own bear with a club, for clothes, and pull down your own branches for shelter. But the man who lives and works among other men must work for their benefit, because that is the kind of part- nership humanity has set up to .escape the cold and hunger, that brought- mis- ery in the days of barbarism. • •• * * * .'..*> Go back to the beginning; back to the days before men went into partnership. A man lies on his back beneath a tree, naked. Other men, like him, are basking in the autumn sunshine. Nobody is working. Nobody has worked. There is no food stored up for the chili days when vegetation is with- ered and the trees bear no fruit. There are no clothes. There is no shack nor novel There can be no stored pro- visions nor clothes nor hut without work. * * • Winter comes on. The people huddle in caves to escape the bitter wind. Some die of cold. They scratch in the earth for roots that they can eat. Sometimes they are able to catch a small animal When such food is not available, they starve. Occasionally a man, with a rock or club, has managed to kill a bear. The others rush for the meat, and he de- fends It. They kill him, and then bat- tle among themselves over the question who shall get the carcass of the bear. In the end the strongest gets it, and drags tt to his own cave, where he and his female and his children devour the flesh. * * * Men lived so, once upon a time. * • * X-ater, they decided that this sort of thing didn't pay. They worked out a different arrange- ment. Before cold weather came, the matt kilted a bear or two, and the woman skinned them, and laid out the pelts to dry; fdY clothes. Together they put away some nuts and dried vegetables and meat, to keep themselves and the young- sters alive through the winter. To make Utt for the shortage of caves, they built a hut W live in, out of the branches of trees, and bits of turf. They learned that there was such a thing as comfort, even in the winter. la the course of ages they learned that they could make food grow for them by planting seeds and bulbs. That meant more work. When they first began working, two or three weeks in the year served the purpose. They got Only two or three weeks' worth of return from it, but not so many froze to death or starved. lese But more desires developed, and these meant greater and longer effort. They discovered that stone hatchets were better than branches torn from a tree in doing battle with bears and wolves. One old man proved more skillful in making hatchets than the others. He was too weak to go out to do any kill- ing himself, but in exchange for his hatchets, the younger men gave him a share of the meat they brought in. It was the first wage in history. * • * If the old man had worked only for himself and not for the benefit of the other fellow, he'd have only his hatchets. He couldn't eat them, and he couldn't wear them. He couldn't even use them. He could use the meat, though. He was working for others, and they were working for him. • • • There was one difficulty. Meat came to him in plenty when the men were hunting. When they weren't hunting, or when the kill was poor, he had to eat just the same. However, the news of his skill was spreading. Men came a long way to get his hatchets'. Some brought dried foods — roots and meat dried in the sun. They were more than he could eat at the moment, but they would keep. He put them away at the back of his hut for future use. It was the first profit in history. In course of time, other skilled men developed. Bows and arrows Were in- vented. There were arrowmakers and men who knew how to treat the sinews of animals to make bowstrings. Some had discovered how to make rough shoes out of hides, to protect the feet from thorns and flinty rocks. Each put in his time at the task he could do best, and traded products with the makers of other implements, and hunters, and growers of grain. Men were learning to work together. They were learning, too, to lay aside a surplus out of what they received — food for the winters, and skins and ar- rowheads for the days when they could no longer produce, and would have noth- ing to give in trade. These surpluses grew. * • * One day, in the distant ages of the past, came word to one of the tribe that another clan, across the mountains and the great river, had produced a great quantity of wheat — more than it could use. Wheat could not be grown on the lands of this tribe, but it had been tasted and relished. The journey across the mountains was long and perilous. One youth offered himself to make it. "I have here a great heap of bearskins/' said he. "I will take some of them with me. I should take other things. Give me some of these fine arrow-heads, and these strong bowstrings, and I will give you the rest of my skins for them. Then I will take what I have gathered, and go across the mountains to secure wheat." He collected his wares, made the trip, and brought back, on his own shoulders and on those of bearers from the other tribe, the wheat his people wanted. It was the first commerce in history. i • * The young man traded back to his tribesmen the wheat he had brought, re- ceiving things he needed in exchange, and other things that he could trade to the villagers across the mountains for another consignment of grain. He was the first merchant in history. fie dealt in things he did not raise nor produce, yet without him, each of two tribes would have been without products that it wanted. ♦ * * Slowly, though very surely, the idea spread through mankind. Rude manufactures grew. The discovery was made that iron could be found in the earth, and made into implements. Certain men had learned how to lo- cate iron ore and dig it from the ground. They were the miners. Others had developed skill in heating it and turning it into a metal that could be used. They were the smelters. Still others knew how to beat the iron into spearheads and hatchets and swords and instruments with which to scratch the ground in order that seeds could be ^planted. They were the smiths — the first mechanics of history. • • ♦ Elsewhere, there were regions where men bred sheep, and had learned how to weave cloth from the wool. There were communities where leather goods were made, such as shoes, and heavy jerkins to use in hunting. There were places where ornaments were made, and where men had learned to find and polish precious stones. Merchants went from tribe to tribe, and village to village, carrying the prod- ucts of one to another, trading there for materials needed back home. Each man had his own particular work. Each was working for the benefit of strangers, but if he had not done so, his own work would not have been of benefit to him. The weaver could not consume all his own cloth. The spear- maker could not use his spears and make them, too. Neither of them could spare the time and effort to make the exchange himself. But, by the weaver, spearmaker, merchant, and all the rest laboring for each other, mankind was lifting itself from the level of the sav- age, lying naked upon the ground. * • • In course of time it was found too cumbersome to carry iron hatchets and bales of cloth and shoes from village to village. Tokens were invented, which were used in trade. A merchant, buying a bale of goods to carry back to his people, gave a token to the man from whom he bought. The token usually was made of metal, which could be traded for other wares up to a certain amount. These tokens were called MONEY. Men could carry money in their pock- ets, easily, where they could not pos- sibly carry all the wares it represented. The invention of money did not change 10 the principles on which men were con- ducting trade. It simply made trade easier to carry on. In storing this surplus for old age, it was no longer necessary for the man to fill his house to overflowing with cloth and leather and dried grains. He simply laid by a store of these tokens, with which he could buy what he wanted in time of need. • * * Other things had come into being, with the upward growth of the human race. There were men whose duty it was to heal the sick. There were ministers of religion, and men who decided disputes between the people, and men who wrote records on brick or parchment, and men who taught the young. Their services were paid for out of the surplus of the others. They worked at their crafts, just as the ironmaker worked at his, and similarly, out of the surplus that they were able to lay aside they bought the wares of the cloth- worker, and the ironworker, and the worker in ornaments. * * * Once upon a time, a weaver of cloth found that there was more demand for his product than he could fill by him- self. There was a youth in the neighbor- hood. The youth was not skilled in any- thing, as he had just sprung into man- hood. Skilled work was demanded now by men. "Come with me and learn to weave," said the weaver. "I will teach you the craft, and will give you money to feed and clothe yourself. As you become more skillful I will pay you more. If there is a surplus from your work, as there is from mine, I will buy more wool, and more spindles, and another loom, and find another young man to work with us/' It was the first factory under the wage system. The experiment succeeded. There was profit from the labor of both men. The profit went into the buying of more raw material, and more tools of the craft, and other men were added to the force. ♦ • * Some of the young men proved skill- ful and thrifty. In course of time they had laid up sufficient surplus of their own to become master-weavers on their own account. As men learned the warmth and com- fort of cloth, the demand grew, and weavers set up their looms in increasing numbers. The same process was repeated in other occupations. Mankind by now had advanced so far ibeyond the naked savage underneath the tree that he regarded as necesaary many objects that the savage could not dream would ever exist. In the quest for physical comfort and mental advancement, and happiness, men were demanding more and more products and service. Each of these activities required the time of men. Each new product de- manded special skill. Means for establishing new industries, for advancing new arts, for promoting new discoveries in science, were pro- vided by the surplus which was stored up from the labor of mankind. This surplus was profit, and without profit men found that they could not ex- tend the arts and crafts which constituted civilization. * * • The growth of mankind is measured by the growth of mankind's require- ments. It came to pass that great engines •were required to do the work that a sail used to do, in moving ships across the water. To make these engines, huge factories were needed, and these in turn called for intricate machines. By the effort of scientists — which <really means all men who use their brains in seeking human progress — it became possible to do in these great plants things that could not be done at all by individual men working alone. It was possible, once, for the master- weaver, or spearmaker, out of the sur- plus of his own labor and that of the 11 men who worked with him, to add the simple machinery that he needed for extension, or to establish an entirely new industry. But as the demands of the human race grew greater, with increasing knowl- edge, it took the surplus of a number of master-weavers or ironmasters, put together, to establish a plant for weav- ing a new material, or building a new engine, or to extend old plants. Each put his surplus with the surplus ^of the others, and they called them- selves a corporation. Instead of the one young fellow in the plant of the original weaver, great num- bers were working by this time. They were paid money for their work, just as the first master-weaver paid his first hired assistant. Out of the profits of these combined efforts, still other new industries were founded, and old ones extended to meet the needs of the growing population of the world. * * » This is the system which the radical socialist desires to overthrow. Call it by any name, it is still the means by which men ascend from the savage who lay naked "underneath a tree. It is based on the principle that each man, in doing his task he has picked out for himself, is working for his fel- lowmen, whether they be acquaintances or strangers. Further, it means that his fellowmen are working for him. The material for growth is provided by the discovery of the old hatchet- maker in the distant past — that a surplus is necessary from the labor of men If men are to receive the full benefit of their labor. This surplus has extended industry, in order to give occupation to the grow- ing multitudes on earth and to provide comforts that they call for; it has built schools and cathedrals and supported the teachers who train men to think; it has made possible the social machinery that protects men in their persons and possessions; it has carried water into the desert places of the earth; it has constructed highways and other means of travel; it has, bit by bit, built the structure of civilization. Overthrow the system, and it must be built again. Man will not be contented to labor only for himself, receiving nothing from his neighbor, getting nothing but what he fashions by his own effort. "These other fellows are riding on my back!" complains the bolshevist. And he is riding on the backs of the other fellows. Each would suffer without the help of the others. If a man is to dwell among his fellowmen at all he must help to carry them, in order that they may help to carry him. Man MUST work for the benefit of the other fellow, if he is not to slip back to nakedness, in the wilderness. * * * There are balances in the system that need adjusting. Each man should receive enough for This labor to lay aside a surplus of his own, if he is the type of man who will lay aside a surplus at all. There should be minimum wage laws, based on the cost of living. There have been wastes of the so- cial surplus — humanity's profit from its work — such as in the destruction of war. The proposed League of Nations is aimed to stop that particular waste. There is need of applying part of the profit to reclaiming more lands, to build- ing more highways, to establish dwell- ings for the workers away from crowded apartments, onto the land where their children may develop into better men and women. There is need of laying aside part of the profit for the support of the sick and aged, who either have not been able to store up a surplus for themselves or who have not chosen to do so. These things and others should be done, and the means for doing them is at hand, whenever the majority finds that it is ready to do them. « * * There are men who understand, and who call out to mankind: 12 "Let us keep on building! We have 1 structure that has taken all these ages to erect. Let us make it safer, and sounder, and adorn it with useful things. in order that each of us may take ad- vantage of his skill and knowledge for tiie betterment of himself and the race ©f men!" And then there are the bolshevists, wiio point to the edifice of civilization, and cry: "Let's tear the damn thing down!" Which utters better wisdom? Third Editorial i SK a Bolshevik to describe himself i\ and he'll tell you he is a radical. *«■ He's not. He is a reactionary. Radicalism implies a movement for progress. The plans of Bolshevism mean a throw- back to a state of society which has been outgrown, and which men no longer would endure. • » • What is civilization, anyhow? It is the organization of men by which the comforts of life and the general knowledge of mankind are steadily in- creased. Railroads and airplanes, paved roads and automobiles, fine pictures and music, ornaments for the home and for the per- son, the services of science, the growth of machines for easing muscular labor, the production of books, all are expres- sions of civilization. The aim of the labor unions has been to make these benefits available to the workingman, by increasing his income from his labor. This in itself means an increase in pro- duction of comforts and service, to supply the increase in demand. • • * The more the average man is able to any, the more work there is for other men to do. Conversely, the greater the amount pro- duced from the earth and from the hu- man brain, the easier it is for the average to buy these products. A long time ago we saw an I. W. W. poster, representing "industrial union- ism" smashing down the gates of capital- ism, with landlords, superintendents, bankers and so on running for cover. The inscription on the poster ran about as follows: "A few hours' work a day, a few days a year, will mean plenty for everybody under industrial unionism." The picture has stuck in our mind, be- cause the argument printed on the poster has been repeated to the workers in so many different ways, since the Bolshevik agents came to re-enforce the I. W. W. The idea is generally stated this way: "If we abolish the profit system, and put the unemployed and non-producers to work, no man will have to work more than a few hours a day, and there will not be so many workdays in the year. Every man would have easy employment and all the comforts of life." • * If it hadn't been for that argument, the Bolshevik leaders would have found mighty few followers in Russia, and Bol- shevism would have found fewer still in America to applaud it. The trouble with the plan is this: It won't work. It cannot possibly work. It could not work if the Bolshevik! were given full control of every man and every enterprise and every natural resource in the world. • • • In the beginning of our social system, when men did not work at all, there was plenty of leisure for everybody, but there were no comforts, there was no knowl- edge, there were not even clothes nor con- nected speech. When men began to work, a few simple comforts were produced. As work increased, the comforts in- creased. In course of time, men realized, though sometimes dimly, this fact: That the fullest effort of every man is necessary to the fullest development FOR every man of the comforts that earth has to offer. 13 The laws of nature are not subject to human law. Mankind is limited In what it can achieve. The limitation lies in man's own weak- ness. But, with effort, man's strength has in- creased through the ages. He is achiev- ing more, and consequently is receiving more from the earth's resources. He has not yet gained all that he should gain. The earth has scarcely begun to yield her treasures. There are comforts for the human race that no man has yet dreamed of. There are avenues of knowl- edge into which men have not stepped. The only means by which these can be attained is by labor, of hand and mind. Every productive hour that is not used holds back the time when these comforts can be realized. * * • There are men out of work. There are men who are not sufficiently provided with the things they need. The reason is that there is not yet suf- ficient work being done in the world to provide them with employment and with their necessities. Put a man by himself in the wilderness, without help from anyone. If, at the end of a reasonable period, he has no clothes, nor shelter, nor food, we know it is because he has not worked. Men do not live by themselves, in these days. As they have organized their lives, living in communities, no man attempts to provide all things for himself. He does his task, and trades his product for the other fellow's product. Other men produce the clothes, food, shelter, fuel, ornaments, and amusement that he desires, and he secures them by trading his product for theirs, using money as the token of ex- change. He works for others, and they work for him. But the underlying principle of life in communities is the same as the principle of life alone in the wilderness. If a man is unprovided with the things he needs, it is because the work to pro- vide them is not being done. If he has not employment, he is not pro- viding the others with the things he should produce. One man's labor withheld from human- ity, or given to humanity for only part time, reduces the volume of product that is extracted from the earth. » * * It is to the interest of mankind that every man should produce, to his fullest capacity, the things he is fitted to pro- duce. Necessities and comforts alike come from the earth, through labor. The knowl- edge of how to prepare and use them comes from the human brain. The greater the amount that comes from the earth, the greater the efforf made by those whose task it is to devise means for extracting from earth and from human life the best they have to give, the greater the plenty there is in the world for all men. Each man who works helps to supply his neighbor, and makes it easier for his neighbor to secure what he needs. The man who does not work, either be- cause he cannot find work or does not de- sire to work, is depriving his neighbor as well as himself. • • • "How about the fellow who is living off the other fellow's labor?" demands the Bolshevik. Every man lives off the other fellow's labor, because he cannot himself grow the food, dig the ore, weave the clothes, fashion the house and furniture, write the books, compose the music, solve the natural secrets, build the street cars and engines, that are essential to his daily life. He can only do his task, and trade with the other fellow. "But we can abolish profit," insists the Bolshevik. We cannot abolish profit. A surplus from each man's daily labor —and that means the world's daily labor —is essential for protection against the rigors of old age, for the expansion of in- 14 dustry to care for new wants and new populations, for the replacing of wornout equipment. The channels through which the sur- plus passes can be changed by the people when they so desire, by taxation and pub- lic ownership. The surplus itself must remain, or man- kind would be living, as it once did, from hand to mouth. * * * Neither can the Bolshevik put into ef- fect his doctrine of "a few hours work a day, and riot so many workdays in the year." Men would not tolerate the condition which would follow such a course. An almost perfect example of what it would mean can be seen today in the hill region of Georgia and parts of Ten- nessee. The hill-men peacefully follow the Bol- shevist program, though they never heard of Bolshevism. They do not labor for the other fellow; they do not count on profit from what they do; they work only a few hours a day, a few days a year. They have no books nor pictures nor music; very few possessions of any kind; not much food; their clothes are pathetic rains; they do not travel from place to place. Possession of comforts means WORK. Any proposal to limit production is a proposal to limit the comforts that men can secure, and so limit the future of their children. * * * What the world needs is MORE produc- tion; that wealth — which is drawn from the earth through labor — shall be in suf- ficient abundance that ALL men may share it, and the comfort that it means. * * * * There is a limit to the number of hours that a man can spend at his work effi- ciently. It is contrary to public welfare that any man or woman should work beyond this period of efficiency. Further, every man needs a daily period of recreation. He cannot do his part un- less he has this period. We have now, in our civilization, the means to determine the proper length of workday in each craft, and the time that men should be free to amuse them- selves. There can be, there should be, and there WILL be — unless mankind has to stop the struggle with the anti-social menace of Bolshevism — a code of laws defining the maximum workday, and pro- viding public employment for the unem- ployed. * * * Public employment does not differ in any fundamental particular from private employment. The man who works, either at public or private labor, expends his income for the products made by other men. This gives them, in turn, a larger income to pay for his product. The source from which the additional riches come to meet this and all other costs is the fruitful earth. Each man who is employed makes pos- sible a larger extraction from the earth of its resources. Each man unemployed, and each loaf- er, rich or poor, retards the increase of mankind's comforts by the exact measure of one man's labor. * * * The scientist, the musician, the artist, the engineer, the architect, the guardian of public order, the director of groups of men, the tradesman who distributes men's products, the physician, the clergy- man, the writer, the teacher, are NOT non-producers, for they serve their fellow- men in capacities in which the individual cannot serve himself. Added together, even in times of se- vere stress, the actual non-producers are few in comparison to the vast number of human beings who are at work. The born loafer is a problem; always has been and likely will continue to be so. But the unemployed CAN be put to work, and given his full share as a part- ner of humanity in bringing better things 15 to the race of men. The doing of it awaits only the action of the people. They have the machinery at hand to abolish unem- ployment. * * * Civilization still has a long way to go. Mankind is only part developed. But the man who is building ships, or knitting garments, or felling trees, is as surely working at the advancement of science, of the arts, of the human race, as if he were the scientist in his labora- tory, or the thinker who is fashioning into words the ideals of mankind. The work that he does counts as one man's part in the upraising of the race, sharing as he does the efforts of all other men, and as they share his. The expression of higher things of the mind, just as the development of greater comforts for the body, depend on labor, and the success of labor depends on the progress of civilization. The Bolshevik proposes to retard de- velopment of the earth's bounty, whether the proposal is a conscious one or not. In so doing, he aims a blow at the very work- ers to whom he preaches his doctrine. 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