. Vhere You Get Off BY JOHN M. WORK AUTHOR OF WHAT'S SO AND WHAT ISN'T PRICE TEN CENTS Published by THE SOCIALIST PARTY 111 NORTH MARKET ST. CHICAGO Where You Get Off BY JOHN M. WORK AUTHOR OF WHAT'S SO AND WHAT ISN'T Published by THE SOCIALIST PARTY 111 NORTH MARKET ST. CHICAGO CONTENTS Chapter Page I. How You Work 3 II. What You Get 10 III. What You Want 16 IV. How You Can Get It 22 V. Where You Get On.. .39 WHERE YOU GET OFF CHAPTER I . HOW YOU WORK How do you do, Average American Workingman! Your actions show that you don't know where you get off. So, prick up your ears and give heed, for I'm going to tell you. I shall also tell you where you get on. First of all, I want you to realize the situation as it is. There are many people who imagine that things must be thus and so, just because they have been that way. But that is a mistake. There are also many people who subscribe to the theory, sug- gested by Shakespeare's Hamlet in his famous soliloquy, that it is better to bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. Kindly remember that Hamlet was damaged in his upper story. And even he did not advocate this theory, but merely suggested it. Those who subscribe to this theory are cursed with lurid imaginations. They conjure up all kinds of unreal ills which they imagine they would incur if they attempted to remedy the ills by which they are now surrounded. But the sensible thing to do is to abolish the evils. LOOKING FOR A JOB One of the most debasing evils now existing is the fact that when a workingman wants a job he has to ask a capitalist, or the representative of a capitalist, for it. 2091484 4 WHERE YOU GET OFF In the words of Robert Burns: "See yonder poor, o'erlabored wight, So abject, mean and vile, Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil ; And see his lordly fellow-worm The poor petition spurn, Unmindful though a weeping wife And helpless offspring mourn. "If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave By nature's law design'd Why was an independent wish E'er planted in my mind ? If not, why am I subject to His cruelty or scorn ? Or why has man the will and power To make his fellow mourn ?" The right to work should be inalienable. William Morris, the great English artistic and literary genius, has put in beautiful language both the right to work and the right to the right kind of work: "I have looked at this claim in the light of history and by my own conscience, and it seems to me so looked at to be a most just claim, and that resistance to it means nothing short of a de- nial of the hope of civilization. "This, then, is the claim: "It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious. "Turn that claim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I cannot find that it is an exorbitant claim ; yet again I say if society would or could admit it, the face of the world would be changed; discontent and strife and dishonesty would be ended. To feel that we were doing work useful to others and pleasant to ourselves, and that such work and its due reward could not fail us! What serious harm could happen to us then?" WHERE YOU GET OFF 5 Does that claim seem like a dreamy impossibility to you? It is not. It is entirely feasible. But it is in striking contrast to the present condition. It is in striking contrast to the present condition both in the manner of securing the work and in the manner of doing it. He says we have the right to this kind of work. But if we have any right to any kind of work at the present time, that right is in abeyance. It has degenerated into a right to ask a capitalist for a job.- We no longer have the right to work. We have only the right to work if a capitalist sees fit to permit us to do so. To every self-respecting man and woman, it is humiliating to ask another person for a chance to earn a living. It is humil- iating to be dependent upon another for an opportunity to stay on the face of the earth. It pierces one's self-respect. It plunges the iron into one's soul. THE FACTORY JOB Having meekly and with due mortification humiliated your- self before a capitalist or his representative and secured a job, what then? 'The conditions under which you work are the opposite of those advocated by William Morris. Perhaps you work in a factory. If so, it is located amid cheerless surroundings. If in a large city, it is located amid noisy, dusty, smoky, gloomy and un- healthful surroundings. The building itself is dingy and ugly. In its construction, cheapness and utility alone were taken into consideration. There was no thought of making it beautiful. There was not the re- motest dream of making it contribute to the joy of effort. On the contrary, it is grimy and dirty. Here and there the eye is insulted by trash and accumulated filth. Some parts of it are so dark and gloomy that artificial light has to be used all day. It menaces your health every hour you work in it. Then, your hours of labor are too long. You get up early in the morning, snatch a bite of breakfast and hurry away. You do a day's work in the forenoon and stop 6 WHERE YOU GET OFF a little while to eat your lunch. You do another day's work in the afternoon and go home exhausted. The next day you get up early and go through the same round again. The work itself is monotonous. It is a grind. Often it is not worth doing. Often it is not pleasant in itself. When it is worth doing and pleasant in itself, it is spoiled by the over- wearisome and over-anxious conditions and the unpleasant sur- roundings. Often the work is dangerous. No safeguards are installed unless the law requires them or the union is strong enough to compel them, and even then they are skimped. The owners want as large profits as possible. So they spend as little as possible for safeguards, just as they spend as little as possible for attractive and pleasant surroundings. The result is frequent death by whirling machinery and in other ways. Lesser acci- dents also, due to poor equipment, overwork and lack of safe- guards, are a regular thing. Hordes of workers are more or less crippled for life by them. THE RAILROAD JOB Perhaps you are one of the million and a half or so who work on and for the railroads. The railroad workers are mercilessly overworked. Their hours of labor are almost unbelievably long. At the same time their work is most exacting and responsible. Myriads of human lives depend upon their doing it right. They are compelled to run unnecessary risk of being killed or injured. Of course, some casualties are unavoidable. But the average killing of a railroad worker is not an accident at all. It is cold-blooded murder. It is due to the fact that the railroad magnates want more profits. In order to get more profits, they deliberately overwork the men. Overwork results in exhaustion. Exhaustion invites disaster. The railroad magnates also deliberately use the income for dividends and salaries instead of using it to properly equip the roads. The roadbeds are inferior. The rolling stock is inferior. They do not have sufficient double tracks. They do not have sufficient safeguards. Accidents and disasters are the necessary result. WHERE YOU GET OFF 7 Working on the railroad is more dangerous than going to war. THE MINING JOB Perhaps you are one of the multitude who work in the mines. Of all the God-forsaken places on earth, the mining camps are a little the worst. While on top, the miners do have some fresh air, but other- wise their places of abode are as undesirable as the slums of the cities. And even the fresh air is lacking when they are in the mines. The conditions under which they work are indeed far- re- moved from those advocated by William Morris. Crouching in the dark, damp, dismal, ugly, artificial caverns, their work is anything but pleasant. And every miner takes his life in his hand when he goes to work. It is a regular thing to fetch out a crushed body, to listen to the moans of women, and to see the white faces of those who expect the same fate to come to them or theirs sooner or later. Every now and then a great 'disaster, due to lack of safe- guards and lack of proper equipment, occurs. Scores and some- times hundreds of men are buried alive or suffocated. The world gasps with horror and passes on. The capitalists pocket the profits, which, if used to make the work safe, would have pre- vented the catastrophe. THE STORE JOB Perhaps you are one of the host who work in the stores. In the matter of bodily peril, it is not so bad as going to war. In other respects, it is mighty near as bad. The clerks are as badly overworked as the railroad workers, and as badly underpaid as the unskilled laborers. Their work is of a character which requires neatness of appearance on a starvation wage. Their work is susceptible of being made very pleasant indeed. But it is now carried on under the most irritating and nerve- racking conditions. Instead of having the pleasure of ministering to other peo- ple's wants, they have to try to sell them things whether they want them or not. And they have to do this for an unconscion- ably long time each day. 8 WHERE YOU GET OFF They are compelled to sell things which are inferior, cheap and shoddy. It is impossible to find joy in handling such goods. THE OFFICE JOB Perhaps you are one of the myriad who work in the offices. If so, you are more fortunate as to your hours of labor, but your pay is about equal to that of an unskilled laborer. Your work could be made exceedingly attractive. The great difficulty at present, aside from the slight wage, is that the work is not worth doing. The bulk of the office work is concerned with things which are socially useless and worth- less. Not all of it, but most of it. Most of it is concerned with the banking business, and with the law business, and with the loan business, and with the real estate business, and with the advertising business, and with the stock exchange business, and with the board of trade business, and with the patent medicine business, and with the mail order business, and with other worse than useless things too numerous to mention. One would be doing just as much toward the progress of humanity if he earned his living by making holes in the water with his fingers. In fact, it would be better, for most of the office businesses not only do not enhance the progress of the race, but they retard it. So the work of the average office worker is intrinsically worthless. But he does plenty of it. THE FARMING JOB Perhaps you are a horny-fisted son of the soil. You may or may not have a boss over you. Maybe you are working on your own hook. No matter whether you are working for yourself or not, you get up at daybreak. You milk the cows and do the chores before breakfast. You work in the field until sunset. Then you milk the cows and do the chores again. When you get through with your work, it is deep night, the stars are out in all their glory, and the dewy grass is atune with the concert of the insects. WHERE YOU GET OFF V When you buy the things you need, you are plucked. Your real income is therefore little if any more than that of the aver- age wage-earner. You are not able to afford the best machinery. You get along with the old machines just as long as possible. You are compelled to overwork yourself and your family and your horses in order to make a living. Your work is such that it would be ideal if it could be performed under good conditions. It is decidedly worth doing. But it is now done under isolated, irritating and over- wearisome conditions. There is much in this book that does not apply directly to you. But, let me tell you something: Most of it applies to you in an analogous sense. Use your gray matter and you will dis- cover that this is true. When it applies, take it home to yourself. When it does not, give heed to it anyhow, because you need to understand the condition of your brother, the wage-worker, so that you can sympathize with him and fight shoulder to shoulder with him in the great political struggle for your common eman- cipation. When I get time, I expect to write a book especially for you. Then I'll tell you where you get off, all right. THE MISCELLANEOUS JOB Or, perhaps you work in one of the numerous other lines the great building trades, printing, teaching, journalism, unskilled labor, etc., etc. If so, you need to know how the other fellow works, and I trust that you have soaked it in. I trust also that you have soaked in the parts which apply to your particular occupation, for a great deal of it does. There are only a very few people nowadays who are so for- tunate as to work under the conditions advocated by William Morris. Practically all wage-workers of every kind are barred out from those conditions. The conditions under which they work are many and varied, but almost all of them fall distressingly short of the very reasonable standard which he set up. My message is to the many millions who are working under conditions that fall short of that standard. 10 WHERE YOU GET OFF CHAPTER II. WHAT YOU GET The conditions under which you work are vivid in your every-day experience. If their commonplaceness had a tendency to make you look upon them as matters of course, I trust that that attitude of mind has been dispelled by the brief portrayal of them as they are, which I have given in the preceding chapter. YOUR WAGES As if it were not sufficient to work under such conditions, you suffer the further handicap of being deprived of most of your earnings. Perhaps it might be deemed tolerable, at least temporarily, to work under mind-damaging and body-damaging conditions, if you received ample compensation, so that you could surround yourself with desirable conditions outside your work, and take good long vacations, and thus recuperate from the effects. Do you receive such compensation? Quite the opposite. You receive only a fraction of what you earn. You are exploited out of the rest of it by the capitalists who own the industries. All one need do in order to discover that the capitalists exploit the workers out of most of the value of their labor is to look about him and compare the condition of the workers with that of the capitalists. The workers, mental and manual, do all the useful work. The capitalists, as such, do nothing useful. Yet, the workers are poor and the capitalists are rich. Do the capitalists not have their mansions, and their motor cars, and their yachts, and their summer homes, and their lavish functions, etc., etc.? Where do they get them, or the money to pay for them? Where could they get it except from the workers? This demonstrates that the capitalists exploit the workers. Any intelligent person can see it by simply looking around him. There is no way in which we can arrive at the exact degree of this exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class. WHERE YOU GET OFF 11 Various figures have been stated by various people, some of which are entirely inaccurate, not taking all of the factors into consideration. The Socialist Campaign Book, which was compiled with great care, arrives at the conclusion that the wage-worker receives about forty per cent of his earnings, based upon the present con- ditions of labor, wherein his earnings are small compared with what they would be under systematized industry. According to this estimate, he is therefore exploited out of about sixty per cent. These conclusions are based upon a careful study of the census returns. They are undoubtedly quite conservative. It is easy to see, therefore, that the working class, yourself included, is being exploited out of most of its earnings. And it it also being prevented from increasing its earnings by systema- tizing the industries. How do you like it? If you don't like it, you will find out before you finish this book just how this condition can be abolished, and how those who do the necessary and useful mental and manual work can secure the full value of their labor. Also how they can decrease the amount of their labor and at the same time increase its value. WHAT WILL YOUR WAGES BUY? It ought to be enough for capitalism to compel you to work under unnecessarily bad conditions and to rob you of most of the value of your labor. Surely, it ought to let you off with those blighting tragedies. But capitalism is not sympathetic. There is no limit to its greed. Capitalism is cruel. Capitalism is drastic. Capitalism is relentless. Capitalism is merciless. Capitalism exacts the pound of flesh. Capitalism pursues its victims unceasingly. Capitalism lashes them at every step. Having received your miserable pittance for your unneces- sarily long hours of labor under unnecessarily bad conditions, you are then up against the problem of trying to make it buy a sufficient quantity and quality of things to afford at least a sem- 12 WHERE YOU GET OFF blance of decency and comfort and mental and physical de- velopment. There are five things which you try to buy with your income. They are these: Food. Clothing. Shelter. Recreation. Culture. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR FOOD? You spend a large portion of your wages for food. Yet, what a woefully little bit of food you get for your money ! And of what a woefully poor quality! The poorest grades of food are sold to the working class. And then a great deal of it is adulterated. The adulteration of food has become a regular and cus- tomary thing under capitalism. There are some articles of food which in the nature . of things cannot be adulterated such as raw fruit, potatoes and nuts, as they come from the tree, vine or bush. But, nothing daunted, the pirates of trade, in lieu of adulteration, use decep- tion. They put the best on top, deliver an inferior quality, and other tricks. There are other articles of food which are so cheap that nothing cheaper can be found with which to adulterate them. These are often used for the purpose of adulterating higher- priced foods. So extensive are the food adulteration frauds that one would have to devote a book entirely to the subject in order to go into it with any thoroughness. Harvey W. Wiley, the noted expert on the subject, did that very thing. His book is a big fat volume entitled "Foods and Their Adulterations." It is true to its name in that it discusses foods as well as their adulterations. It takes up practically all the different kinds of foods meats, meat prod- ucts, poultry, eggs, game birds, fish foods, milk, butter, other dairy products, oleomargarine, cereals, vegetables, fruits, condi- ments, vegetable oils and fats, nuts, sugar, syrups, confectionery, honey, etc. It explains the composition and value, or lack of value, of the many species of these foods. And it tells just how scores and scores of them are adulterated, imitated, colored, sub- stituted, or debased. In buying canned food, one takes his life in his hand, for the preservatives may be the death of him. WHERE YOU GET OFF 13 Of course, the exact extent of the adulteration of food can- not be ascertained. The amount of money paid out by the people of the United States for fraudulent food has been vari- ously estimated. It is quite safe to say that it is not less than five hundred million dollars per year. Nevertheless, in spite of all this, you are compelled to pur- chase food and take your chances. You can't do without it. The poisonous adulterations and preservatives may injure your health. Or they may kill you. If they are merely "harmless," they will result in poor nourishment, which is in fact not harm- less, but decidedly harmful. But you have to buy them because you can't help yourself. And you have to part with a fright- fully big percentage of your wages in order to pay for this un- satisfactory food. The hearse is taking the bodies of men, women and children to the cemetery every day because of this food adulteration. How do you like it? If you don't like it, be of good courage, for you will find the remedy before you finish this book. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR CLOTHING? When you turn your attention to the purchase of clothing, you do not fare any better. Here, again, you find the prices high and the quality poor. The market is flooded with shoddy goods and with goods that are cheapened in every way possible so as to make an enor- mous profit. The slight amount of money at your command buys only the poorest quality. You part with another big fraction of your income in order to secure this inferior clothing. It is not good while it lasts. It does not look well. And it soon wears out and has to be replaced, with an additional drain upon your purse. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR SHELTER? When it comes to shelter, it takes a cruelly big chunk out of your income to pay rent. And rent for what? Why, rent for an inferior abode. Rent for a place that is not well built. Rent for a place where you do not get pure air to breathe. Rent for a place where there is not sufficient sunlight. 14 WHERE YOU GET OFF Rent for a place where it is impossible to keep clean. Rent for a place that is unsanitary. Rent for a place that is too cold in winter and too hot in summer. Rent for a place that is noisy. Rent for a place that was built with a view to making money, not with a view to proper and comfortable and delightful living conditions. Rent for a place that no human being ought to live in. Rent for a place that puts a premium on disease. Rent for a place that ought to be torn down, so that no more working people will risk their health and their lives in it. In the great cities, the so-called homes of the working class are in the terrible tenements. They are cliff-like structures, swarming with people, and separated by precipitous canyons called streets. In the smaller cities, the hovels and shanties in which the workers live are located on the low and flat places and on the river bottoms, and along the railroads, where they can hear the sweet music of the freight trains as they go rumbling and creak- ing and shrieking by. These houses are small and cheap and stuffy. They are so close together that when a summer breeze tries to weave around among them it is liable to get curvature of the spine. These houses never saw a modern convenience. If a porcelain bathtub were brought among them it would create a sensation. Anyone who sees an old tumble-down shanty, or a filthy con- gested tenement, guiltless of every convenience, can tell at once that it is occupied by working people. No need to exhibit the inmates. No need of making an affidavit to it. Nobody ever heard of a hovel or a tenement being occu- pied by anyone but workingmen and their families. It would be nonsense to go out of one's way to prove it. It is taken as a matter of course at the present time that the useful members of society live in. the worst places and have the worst of the deal in everything, while the useless members of society live in the best places and have the best of the deal in everything". How do you like it? If you don't like it, keep a stiff backbone, for you will find the way out of this abominable condition before you finish reading this book. WHERE YOU GET OFF 15 THE HIGHER THINGS When you have parted with these three big chunks of your wages for food, clothing and shelter in other words, for the mere preparation for real living what have you left for real living: for recreation and culture? Practically nothing. Do you and yours take a good long vacation when it is needed? Do you travel throughout your own and other countries? Do you have the time and the means to develop your mind and your body? Do you have the time and the means to avail yourself of the advantages of the higher institutions of learning? Do you have the time to read the books in the public library? Do you have the money to attend the best lectures and theaters and operas? Do you have the means and the opportunity to hear the best musicians and to see the best works of art? Do you have the means to provide the best musical instruments for your so-called home? Do you have the time and the means and the opportunity to get out with your family and your friends and relax and play? Do you have the time and the opportunity to gratify and to cultivate your love of the beautiful? Do you have the time and the opportunity to enrich and sweeten your spirit, and to love and help your fellow men and women? No sadly, sadly, be it said you do not. Only a stray nickel or quarter goes now and then for these things. . And yet, these are the things that make life worth living. Without these things we do not live at all ; we only exist. Unless we have the time and the means and the opportunity to develop mind and body and spirit, we might just as well be dead, for all the good we are to ourselves or to the world. Lacking these things, the only way in which one can make his life worth living is by working for a way out of that condition. And this book will tell you how to do so. WHERE YOU GET OFF CHAPTER III WHAT YOU WANT Can't you think of a few things that you would like to have, which are impossible now? Can't you think of a few things that you would like to do, which are impossible now? THINK ON THESE THINGS Wouldn't you like to move into a real home where there was room enough where there was every modern convenience where there were beautiful things where there were grass and trees round about and where you would not be ashamed to in- vite your friends to come and see you? Wouldn't you like to be able to send your children to the best universities? Wouldn't you like to read the best books? Wouldn't you like to attend the best lectures and theaters and operas? Wouldn't you like to hear the best musicians and see the best works of art? Wouldn't you like to develop yourself, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually? Wouldn't you like to have the purest and best food to eat? Wouldn't you like to have genuine clothes to wear? Wouldn't you like to have reasonable hours of labor? Wouldn't you like to work amid attractive surroundings? Wouldn't you like to take a good long vacation now and then? Wouldn't you like to be a globe-trotter for a little while? Wouldn't you like to stand on Pike's Peak and see the dawn- ing of the summer sun? Wouldn't you like to stand in front of Niagara and listen to its monstrous roar and see the rainbow in the spray? Wouldn't you like to climb half way to heaven on Washing- ton Monument? Wouldn't you like to ride across the pathless ocean and visit the scenes where the forefathers made history? WHERE YOU GET OFF 17 Wouldn't you like to go to Edinburg, and Glasgow, and Dublin, and Liverpool, and down to Stratford-on-Avon, once the home of the immortal Shakespeare? Wouldn't you like to cross over to gay Paris, mother of revolution ? Wouldn't you like to roam through Berlin, home of cocky emperor and sturdy workingmen? Wouldn't you like to witness the entrancing wonders of the Swiss Alps? Wouldn't you like to wander over the bloody battlefields where Spartacus and his rebel army of workingmen, and their hopes of liberty, were laid low? Wouldn't you like to walk the streets of Rome and remind yourself that these were the self-same streets that were once trod by the silver-tongued, intellectual prostitute, Cicero, and the martyred Gracchus, and the mighty but cruel Caesar with his legions ? Wouldn't you like to stand upon the Acropolis at Athens and reflect that this was the life-scene of the wise Socrates, and Plato, and Aristotle, and Pericles, and that other notorious in- tellectual prostitute of antiquity, Demosthenes, he of the cataract of eloquence? Wouldn't you like to journey to Jerusalem, and Alexan- dria, named after the foolish warrior who thought he had con- quered the world? Wouldn't you like to ride up the Nile? Wouldn't you like to sail around to India, and South Africa, and Australia, and New Zealand, and China, and Japan, and Honolulu, and come home through the Golden Gate at San . Francisco with your mind so broadened that your friends wouldn't recognize you? Have I named anything that you would like to have, or that you would like to do? Have I? Well, I guess yes. WHAT I WANT Probably you have not hitherto formulated in your own mind the things you want. You have not formulated them be- cause there did not seem to be any possibility of ever attaining them. 18 WHERE YOU GET OFF But I tell you that they can be attained and I will show you how before you get through reading this book. And so I will further assist you in formulating your wants by telling you what I want. I want all those things that I asked you about. I need not repeat them except as it may be necessary in elaborating on some of them. I want a real home. A real home. Big enough and not too big. Built to live in, not to make profits out of. Beautifully finished outside and inside. Simply and beautifully furnished. Quiet, peaceful, restful. A place where flowers and trees and grass and fresh air and sunlight abound. Sunlight in every room. A place where love and peace and joy are in harmony with the surroundings where their opposites would be unnatural and out of place. I agree with Charlotte Perkins Oilman that each member of the household should have two rooms and bath. One for working or reading or meeting friends. One for sleeping. One for keeping clean. Nothing will do but to have a bathroom to one's self, opening off the bedroom. We've been trying to keep clean for years and years, and some day we shall succeed. And the bedroom must be capable of being opened up so that one can sleep practically out of doors. I may as well make it plain one time as another that I do not want any luxuries. I want the necessities, and I want the comforts, and I want the higher things. But I do not want any luxuries, and I do not want anybody else to have any luxuries. Luxuries are harmful. They have done incalculable harm to the capitalists who indulge in them. Luxury is costliness, ex- pensiveness, voluptuousness, the gratification of sensuality. It is degenerating. Anyone who indulges in it, now or hereafter, is doomed to be eliminated by the law of the survival of the fittest. Let that be thoroughly understood. If you have any longing for luxury in your heart, expel it. The simple life is the only life that promotes physical and mental and moral and spir- itual health. It is the only life that lasts. And it is not mere material things that I want. If I could have the higher things without first having the material things, I would do so. But the higher things are based on the material things, just as the beau- tiful rosebush is rooted in the ground. So, although I do not want any elaborate material things, I must have the material WHERE YOU GET OFF 19 basis right before I can have the higher things which I really want. I want to earn my living at manual labor. Labor suited to my particular quality of makeup. Labor that is worth while. Labor that is pleasant in itself. I want to put the joy of effort into it. I want to feel that I am accomplishing something. I want to do genuine, honest, faithful work for one-half of each working day, forenoon or afternoon. I want a half holiday every day. I want to receive the full value of my labor, less my share of the expense of administration. And I want a good long vacation every now and then. I want to work in a place where it is a gladness to work. A place that was built for both utility and beauty. A healthful place. A place where there is fresh air, and sunshine, and flowers, and grass, and' trees, and a minimum of noise. A clean place. A place where my fellow-workers are happy. Where we sing at our work. Where we enjoy each other's joy of effort. Where we can work to the strains of music if we want to, and if the nature of the work makes it possible. I do not want to be dependent upon a capitalist or a group of capitalists for an opportunity to earn a living. I am a hu- man being. I was born into the world on an equality with all other human beings. I want my equality of rights recognized. I have a right to equal opportunities. I have a right to a guar- anteed job. I want it to be a matter of course that I am guar- anteed the right to earn my living at work for which I am suited, and to receive my full earnings less my proportion of the ex- pense. Then I will not have to humiliate myself in order to get a job. And I won't have to worry lest I lose my job. And I won't be eternally cramped for lack of money. When I get through with my half-day of joyous work, I can turn to other things with a mind free from worry, free from irritation, open and ready for all good things. I want everybody else to have the things that I want. I want a chance to enjoy the company of my friends. I want to love them and help them in any way that lies in my power. Not that they will need my assistance. If they did, it would be humiliating to them. That is, assistance in the ordi- nary sense. But we shall all need each other's assistance in the higher ways. They will seize every opportunity to be of service to me, and it will be a pleasure to me to do likewise with them. 20 WHERE YOU GET OFF I want to feel the sympathy of hearts that are kind and true and pure and trustworthy. I want my friends to conspire with me in living the simple life. I want to surround ourselves with simple beauty. To live frugally. To' play games of hand and brain. To breast the waves with sinew and with oar. To walk far into the forest, near to nature's heart. To consider the deep things of life. To con- sider the light things of life. To make life a joy to each other. I want to get the public library catalog and run down the list of books. I am so grievously ignorant. I want to make out a list of books that will be helpful to me. Then I want to get them out one by one and gloat over them and devour them with an appetite born of the yearning to know the great truths that have been written by the great thinkers. I hunger and thirst for the opportunity to do this. I want to go to school. If I ever get too old to learn, will someone kindly knock me in the head. But I shall never get too old to learn. I want to study literature and science. I do want to get rid of some of my ignorance. When people talk about the Irish constellation, Orion, I want to be able to locate it in the heavens. Perhaps you will say that it is hopeless to try to locate anything Irish in the heavens. But that's where you have another guess coming. I want to know the meaning of all those long names of sciences. I not only want to know the meaning, but I want to know something about the sciences themselves. I want to know at least enough about them to gather from them whatever aid they can furnish in estimating the present and the future and helping me to make myself useful in the world. And there are many other things that I want to study. They are too numerous to mention. I want to travel. Not all the time for I want to enjoy my home and my friends. But I want to take some of my friends along and see the world. Some people talk about the House of Commons, and the Louvre, and the Vatican, and the Sphinx, just like they had to pass them every morning on their way to work. I want to see them, too. And I want to see my brothers and sisters everywhere around the globe. I want to talk with them. I want to know their problems. I want to help them to solve their problems if I can. I want to get their point of view. I want to learn from them. WHERE YOU GET OFF 21 I want to cultivate the love of the beautiful. It has not had a fair chance. It has starved and starved and starved. I want to really know and appreciate literature, and music, and paint- ing, and sculpture, and all the fine arts. I want to give my soul a chance to unfold. I want to make my life worth living. I want to develop myself, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. I want my friends to join me in consciously and deliberately developing our- selves in all these respects. I want us to sustain each other in all these efforts. I want it understood that life is not worth living unless one makes the world better and happier for his having lived. I want to be able to so live that when I receive the sum- mons to join the "innumerable caravan" I will not go "like a quarry-slave at night, scourged to his dungeon," but will ap- proach the grave serenely "Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." These are a few of the things I want. AM I RIGHT? Have these suggestions helped you any in formulating your wants ? No doubt you have wants which I have not and I have wants which you have not. These things depend upon the makeup and quality of the individual, as determined by his heredity and envi- ronment. If you are of a finer quality than I, you want finer things than I. If you are of a coarser quality than I, you do not want some of the finer things that I want. But, in any event, I believe you want most of the things I have mentioned. If you are a woman, I am sure you want all the things I have named, and maybe more. Women always want the good things and the beautiful things. Not that they never want any- thing else. But they always yearn for the good things and the beautiful things. And all women who have awakened from the age-long sleep want both political and industrial emancipation. They want the right to vote. And they want to earn their own living, instead of being dependent upon men. 22 WHERE YOU GET OFF CHAPTER IV HOW YOU CAN GET IT We have seen how you work, what you get, and what you want. We are now ready to find out how you can get what you want. The way to get it is to connect up with the supply. CONNECT UP WITH THE SUPPLY In the ancient classic mythology there is a story about an earth-born giant named Antaeus. The warm earth, Terra, was his mother. His father was the stormy Neptune, god of the sea. When he was in touch with his mother, the earth, strength and vitality flowed into him from the earth. When he was not in contact with the earth, his strength waned. One day Hercules happened along, swinging his club, fresh from his exploit of holding the world on his shoulders while Atlas got the golden apples of the Hesperides for him. Envious Antaeus was like Cassius : he could not be at heart's ease while he beheld a greater than he. So the two giants engaged in mortal combat. Hercules was the stronger. But he found that every time he felled Antaeus to the ground with his club, the earth-born giant acquired new strength from the earth and sprang to his feet stronger than ever. To overcome this difficulty, Hercules seized him by the girth, swung him aloft, and held him high in air. In this position, Antaeus no longer received his accustomed supply of strength from the earth. His strength therefore waned. In a short time he died, and Hercules tossed his lubberly hulk into a neighboring valley. Modern man also derives his strength and vitality from the earth not directly like Antaeus, but indirectly, through his food, his clothing, his shelter, etc. He, too, is dependent upon the earth, upon the material industries of the earth. He is dependent upon them for his very life, and also for the higher things, to which material sus- tenance is a prerequisite. WHERE YOU GET OFF 23 When the Hercules of capitalism comes along and cuts off his supply from the earth, he, too, is "up in the air." His strength wanes. And unless his connection with the earth supply is re- established, he perishes. At the present time all the workers are deprived of most of the supply to which they are entitled. They are deprived of it because the industries are owned by the capitalists. The private ownership of the industries en- ables the private owners the capitalists to keep for themselves most of the earnings of the workers. They can do so, because the workers are dependent upon them for jobs. We Socialists say that the industries shall be owned collec- tively by all the people. Then the people will employ themselves in their own industries and pay themselves all they earn. Their connection with their full earth supply will thus be re-established. Then we shall no longer be a physically and intellectually stunted race, but will have a full and free opportunity to make the most of life. THE GOLDEN REMEDY Socialism is the golden remedy for all the evils and limita- tions which I have mentioned in the preceding chapters. Socialism will make the exploiting industries collective prop- erty, so that they will no longer be run for the benefit of private capitalists, but will be run for the benefit of all the people. Then, the men and women who do the necessary and useful mental and manual work will receive their full earnings. And their full earnings will be greater than they are now, because Socialism will systematize the industries and eliminate waste. The elimination of waste and the elimination of unneces- sary occupations will make it an easy matter to greatly reduce the hours of labor, while still increasing the earnings. Every- one will have useful and pleasant work to do, under conditions neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious. The dream of William Morris will come true. There will be no more adulterated food for there will be no incentive for the collectivity to engage in adulteration. The reverse will be true. The collectivity will have every incentive to produce the best and the purest of food. The 24 WHERE YOU GET OFF people will be the collectivity and they will want the best there is. And food will be sold at the cost of production. Clothing will also be the best that can be made, and it will also be sold at the cost of production. The best of buildings will also be erected in the healthiest locations to live in. They will be rented at the cost of upkeep and depreciation. Or you can build your own if -you want to. So, the necessities will consume only a small fraction of your income. You will have the bulk of it left for real living. You will have the time, the means and the opportunity to accomplish everything set forth in the preceding chapter. Furthermore, you will have the disposition to do it. Your spirits will be buoyant, for you will no longer be ill-nourished, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and tired. THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIALISM Since so much is claimed for Socialism, you would like to know more about it. All right, here goes to tell you more about it. Clinch one thing in your mind first of all. It is this: Socialism is not a plan which the Socialists have invented. On the contrary, Socialism is a phase of civilization. It is the natural outcome of industrial evolution. Let me give you a brief glimpse of the principles of Socialism. I believe it is true of many men and women that they have read books treating of the principles of Socialism in a general way, but did not grasp these principles because they were not definitely enumerated and explained. The three main fundamental principles of Socialism are Surplus Value, the Class Struggle, and Economic Determinism or the Economic Urge, as I call it. These names look formidable, but the ideas which they represent are not particularly difficult to understand. SURPLUS VALUE Under the present capitalist system of industry which we often call capitalism the chief industries are owned bv WHERE YOU GET OFF 25 capitalists and by combinations of capitalists called corpora- tions or trusts. The capitalist class, because of its ownership of the chief industries, has the power to exploit the working class out of most of its earnings. We have already seen that it does so. The working class consists mainly of wage-earners and farmers. The wage-earners are dependent upon the capitalists for their jobs. They are dependent upon the capitalists for their jobs because the capitalists own the industries in which they the wage earners literally must work in order to earn a living. Exercising the power which this ownership of the indus- tries gives them, the capitalists compel the wage workers to work for them for a fraction of the value of their labor. They keep the rest themselves. This surplus, which the capitalists enjoy but do not earn, is called surplus value. The capitalists extract still more surplus value out of the workers by charging them extortionate prices for the things they buy and the so-called homes they rent. The farmers are gouged right and left by the trusts and other industries. They pay vastly more for the things they buy than it costs to produce them. It will thus be seen that the capitalist class extorts surplus value out of both of the great divisions of the working class the wage-earners and the farmers. This theory of value is substantiated by the fact that in so far as wealth is not furnished by nature, it is created by labor of hand and brain. If labor does not create it, what does? A few of the capitalists earn a small portion of their in- comes by doing mental labor in the industries. In so far as they do this, they are not capitalists, but workers. But this is only true of a few of them, and even these few earn only a small fraction of the incomes they draw from the industries. Even their salaries are not usually earned. And they do not earn one penny of the incomes which they receive from their ownership of stocks, bonds, dwellings and the 26 WHERE YOU GET OFF necessaries of life. In other words, their dividends, interest, rent and profit consist of surplus value filched from the workers. THE CLASS STRUGGLE It is impossible for the present capitalist system of indus- try, on account of its very nature and essence, to operate to the mutual advantage of the man who works and the man who employs. This is because, under this system, their interests are directly and necessarily antagonistic. It is to the interest of the employer to have long hours and low wages, in order that he may reap big profits. Also in order that he may prevent the workers from developing themselves so as to fight more effectively and valiantly for freedom. It is to the interest of the workers to have short hours and high wages, for obvious reasons. The two classes therefore struggle against each other. Of course, there are some minor respects in which their in- terests are identical. But fundamentally their interests are directly and neces- sarily antagonistic. Anyone who expects them to do otherwise than struggle against each other, so long as they remain in the relation of em- ployer and employe, is a Utopian dreamer. He does not take human nature into consideration at all. As a matter of fact, they do constantly struggle against each other. The workers constantly struggle against the capitalists in order to secure shorter hours of labor and in order to secure a larger portion of the surplus value which they earn. As they become more enlightened, they struggle to secure the whole of it. The capitalists, on the other hand, constantly struggle against the workers, to keep them from accomplishing these objects, and even to diminish the portion of their earnings which they already receive, so that they themselves can retain as great a quantity of surplus value as possible and enjoy immense wealth. So surplus value is the cause of the class struggle. Strikes and lockouts are battles in the class struggle. At the present time the capitalist class has control of the WHERE YOU GET OFF 27 national and state governments, through its political parties the Republican, Democratic, and Progressive parties. The capitalists therefore make use of these governments the army, the militia, the courts, etc. to help themselves in their struggles against the working class. Most of the cities are also under the control of the capitalist class, through its political parties the Republican, Democratic, and Progressive parties though an increasing number of them are coming under the control of the working class, through its political party, the Socialist party. In the cities controlled by the capitalist class, the police and the entire city administrations are used for the purpose of help- ing the capitalists in their struggles against the workers. But, strikes or no strikes, the less exciting evidences of the class struggle exist on every hand all the time. All one need do is to look about him with open eyes, and he cannot help seeing that society is divided into two classes, and that the in- terests of these two classes are antagonistic. ECONOMIC DETERMINISM Economic Determinism is sometimes called the Economic Interpretation of History, and sometimes the Materialistic Con- .ception of History, and sometimes Historical Materialism. None of these hard names are strictly accurate. Economic Determinism carries with it the idea of economic fatalism. Economic Interpretation of History carries the idea that it < plies only to the past. Materialistic Conception of History and Historical Material- ism carry the idea that it applies only to the past, and they also carry the idea that it is identical with or a part of the philosophy of materialism. I therefore call it the Economic Urge, which I believe to be more nearly accurate. A knowledge of this principle throws a searchlight upon the whole of history, upon the origin and growth of institutions, upon the course of current events, and upon the character and motives of peoples and classes. I shall give it substantially as it is stated in the classic lit- erature of Socialism. 23 WHERE YOU GET OFF In every historical epoch the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch. Consequently, the whole history of mankind, since the dawn of civilization, has been a history of class struggles, contests be- tween exploiting and exploited classes. These class struggles form a series of evolution, in which a stage has now been reached where the exploited class the working class cannot attain its emancipation from the domina- tion of the exploiting class the capitalist class without, at the same time, and once for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions and class struggles. Such is the statement of this principle, substantially as given in the classic literature of Socialism. The first epoch of civilization was the long period of ancient chattel slavery. The master class owned everything. It ex- ploited the slaves out of most of their earnings. And, guided by its economic interest, it strove to maintain its economic posi- tion. The slave class, also guided by its economic interest, strug- gled to release itself from the domination of the master class. By reason of economic changes, this first epoch of civiliza- tion gradually merged into the second epoch the feudal system The feudal lord class owned the means of production. It ex- ploited the serfs out of most of their earnings. And, guided by its economic interest, it strove to maintain its economic position. The serf class, also guided by its economic interest, struggled to free itself from the domination of the feudal lord class. In course of time, and by reason of economic changes, the trading class arose, and, driven by its economic interest, over- threw the feudal lord class, and itself became the dominating capitalist class. In this process the serf class was emancipated from serfdom. But it only changed the form of its servitude. It reappeared as the modern working class. Thus the third, the present, epoch of civilization was ushered in. The capitalist class owns most of the means of production and distribution. It exploits the working class out of most of its earnings. And, guided by its economic interest, it constantly strives to maintain its economic position. The working class, also guided by its eco- nomic interest, constantly struggles to rid itself of the domina- tion of the capitalist class. WHERE YOU GET OFF 29 THE OUTCOME We have analyzed the three fundamental principles of So- cialism. Now let us synthesize them bring them together logically, and note the result. The capitalist class exploits the workers out of most of their earnings, because it owns the industries. The two classes struggle against each other to secure the product of labor or the value of that product. The economic urge drives the two classes on in this struggle. An individual workingman is powerless against the capitalist class. And the industries have become so great that an individ- ual workingman cannot own or operate them. They have to be operated by many workers working together. Therefore, the only way in which the working class can win the struggle, or profit by it after it is won, is by acting together, shoulder to shoulder, winning the struggle together, and then owning and operating the industries together. The overwhelming majority of the people already belong to the working class. And it is growing constantly in numbers. The Socialist party is the political expression of the work- ing class. Guided by the economic interest of the working class, the Socialist party, with the co-operation of the union movement, proposes to wage the class struggle at the ballot box until it wins. When it wins, it will make the exploiting industries collec- tive property and run them for the benefit of all the people. It will guarantee every man and woman an opportunity to earn a living. The men and women who do the necessary and useful mental and manual work will receive the full value of their labor. They will no longer have to let capitalist parasites rob them of surplus value in order to get a chance to work for a sub- sistence. This will remove the economic reason for class division. The class struggle will therefore cease. The classes themselves will cease to exist. We will become a homogeneous people, with all the sur- roundings that make for happy, wholesome lives, and with wide- open avenues to all the higher things of life. 30 WHERE YOU GET OFF So the logical result of the fundamental principles I have outlined is Socialism. Socialism will be the outcome of industrial evolution. MUTUAL INTERDEPENDENCE I stated that an individual workingman cannot operate a modern industry. Formerly this was not the case. The situation has been changed by economic development. People used to be practically independent of each other. Tools were simple. A person could exist without aid from others and without co-operating with others. But machinery has developed from the simple hand tool used by one person, to the great collections of labor-saving ma- chines used by many persons. Small industry has developed into great industry, and great aggregations of industries. These changes have made people interdependent upon one another for the very elements of life. We have changed from separateness to socialness. But our laws are based upon the theory that we are still liv- ing under the condition of separateness. They are adapted to that condition. They therefore do not fit our condition of social- ness at all. The result is excruciating agony. Wearing anything that does not fit causes excruciating agony. Try wearing a pair of shoes several sizes too small for you, and see. It is the same with the social body. The laws do not fit. The laws permit the capitalists to have the private ownership of the great industries, although economic evolution has arrived at the point where they should be socially or collectively owned. We must change the laws to suit the condition of socialness into which we have developed. Since we have become mutually interdependent, mutually intertwined, we therefore need to change the laws in such a man- ner that the industries on which we are mutually dependent will be mutually owned by -all of us. The Socialist party proposes to so change the laws. WHERE YOU GET OFF 31 DON'T BE FOOLED Remember that it is decidedly to the financial interest of the capitalists to try to keep the laws essentially as they are now. They use every means in their power to try to keep up the delusion in people's minds that they, the capitalists, are necessary to the continuation of the industrial process and to keep up the delusion that they, the capitalists, are entitled to the dividends, interest, rent and profit which they receive and to keep up the delusion that the people are prospering under the present system and to keep up the delusion that the capitalist system of in- dustry is the natural and God-given method of carrying on the affairs of the world. Up to the present time, a majority of the people still enter- tain these delusions. But more and more of them are getting these delusions ex- pelled from their minds as time goes on. A GENTLE HINT One fine summer day when I was sitting in the park, deeply absorbed in a book, a squirrel came running over the grass to- ward me. With a noiseless leap, he landed on the bench and came up close. He stood up on his hind legs, steadied himself with one front paw against my knee, and regarded me in an inquiring manner. I was expecting him, and had come prepared to answer his inquiry in a satisfactory manner. I took a peanut from my pocket and held it in the hollow of my hand. Down he dropped on all-fours. He shook his bushy tail. He flattened down his front quarters in a hesitating way. Then he summoned all his courage and stole up and took the prize from my hand. A little scamper took him away again to the safe distance of a dozen inches or so. Standing on his hindlegs, he held the peanut between his paws and tested it in some mysterious way with his mouth or nose. He decided that it was all right. He poked it into his mouth, although it was almost too big to go in. Another noiseless leap took him off in the grass. A few jumps, in his exquisite little humping, bobbing way, landed him at the edge of the walk. There he hid the peanut in the gravel. 32 WHERE YOU GET OFF He did not set up a stake or a stone to mark the place. Yet I have no doubt that he found it when he wanted it. Having safely stowed it away, he came running back to see if I had any more. Sure enough, there was another, or what looked like one, in my hand. In reality it was a hollow shell. It hurt my con- science to play a trick on him, but I wanted to see what he would do. With the same precautionary maneuvers as before, he took it from my hand and retired his safe dozen inches or so to ex- amine it. No sooner had he brought it to the end of his nose than he shook his head and dropped it. Not that I believe the shake of his head was intended as a negative. No doubt it just looked that way. But, anyhow, he shook his head and dropped it. He discovered the fraud instantly. Would that some human beings were as ready with their wits! The delusions in regard to capitalism and the capitalists would not last long. For they are just as hollow. Sometimes these delusions are put forward in praise and glorification of capitalism and capitalists. Sometimes they take the form of lies about Socialism. HOW COULD WE GET ALONG? An Irishman once Said that half the lies they tell about the Irish are not true. None of the lies they tell about Socialism are true. The lies they tell about Socialism are very wonderful, both in their stature and in their variety. I wish to refer to but one of them at present. It is a huge, awkward, massive, monstrous lie. I mean the one about Socialism being impractical because we can't get along without the capitalists. Designing opponents of Socialism spring this lie with malice aforethought. Others often ask in all seriousness, "Do we not need the capitalists to give us employment and to manage the industries? How would it be possible to get along without them?" Well, we can get along without the capitalists a good deal like a dog could get along without fleas. WHERE YOU GET OFF 33 For the capitalists perform exactly the same function in society. They are leeches. They are parasites. They do noth- ing useful. They live off the labor of others. As a rule, the capitalists do not manage the industries even now. Most of the managing of the industries is done by hired men, while the capitalists spend their time wasting the profits, or in manipulating stocks and bonds and real estate. If you were to take a walk up Fifth avenue iji New York and the side streets that run off of it, you would see there scores of magnificent palaces, costing millions of dollars each. The men who own these palaces own still other palaces at Newport and in the Adirondacks and elsewhere. The same thing is true, in somewhat lesser degree, of every other city. These men are the capitalists. They have the wealth, without having earned it. The masses of the people are deprived of nearly everything worth while, because the capitalists have the wealth. Decidedly, we do not need the capitalists. On the contrary, we need very badly to get rid of them, so that the wealth will go to those who earn it. If any of the capitalists do have managing ability, they will be sure of good jobs under Socialism. We have no inten- tion of abolishing their ability. We intend only to abolish their function as capitalists their function as parasites. Neither will we need them to give us jobs. For, when the people own the industries collectively, they will employ them- selves in their own industries. So explodes the first delusion. * LEGAL AND MORAL RIGHTS The delusion that the capitalists are entitled to the dividends, interest, rent and profit which they receive, dies hard. But it is gradually fading out of people's minds. As it fades out, it is replaced by the infinitely higher con- ception that no one is entitled to an income in society unless he or she renders equivalent social service in return for it. The capitalists, as such, render no social service whatsoever. They are parasites pure and simple. 34 WHERE YOU GET OFF No one denies that most of them have a legal right to their ill-gotten gains. But that is because the laws are wrong. Legal rights and moral rights are widely different. The capitalists have no moral right whatever to their ill- gotten gains, because they have rendered no social service in re- turn for them. ARE THE TIMES PROSPEROUS? It is not necessary to spend much time on the delusion that the people are prospering under the present system. We have already covered that point. The fact that they lack all of the many things which I have pointed out in a previous chapter is conclusive proof that there is no such thing as prosperity for the masses of the people under this system. No one knows any better than we that civilization has developed much that is val- uable: But the present capitalist system being a system which gives the bulk of the earnings of the many to the few, it is by its very nature a system which makes prosperity for the many impossible. However, let us take a few flashing glances at the subject, from different angles, to refresh our memories. If the times are prosperous, there is not a single worker out of a job. If the times are prosperous, the charity organizations have gone out of business. If the times are prosperous, there are no tramps. If the times are prosperous, child slavery has ceased. If the times are prosperous, crime is a rarity. If the times are prosperous, suicide is seldom heard of. If the times are prosperous, insanity is vanishing. If the times are prosperous, drunkenness is a thing of the past. If the times are prosperous, prostitution is of rare occur- rence. If the times are prosperous, poverty has become extinct. If the times are prosperous, all the people have a full and free opportunity to develop themselves physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. Now decide the question in your own mind. WHERE YOU GET OFF 35 INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION As for the delusion that the present capitalist system of industry is the natural and God-given method of carrying on the affairs of the world, it would be an insult to both God and nature to accuse them of having such a villainous system as their ultimate aim. The truth is that the capitalist system is itself a product of industrial evolution, and that industrial evolution, in its con- stant progress, is developing society into the Socialist system. A while ago I briefly touched upon the three epochs of civil- ization the chattel slavery system, the feudal system, and the capitalist system. Each of these was the product of industrial or economic evolution. So were the stages of human progress which preceded civili- zation savagery and barbarism. Savagery developed into barbarism. Barbarism developed into chattel slavery. Chattel slavery developed into feudalism. Feudalism developed into capitalism. And capitalism is developing into Socialism. It is true, of course, that we have made progress under cap- italism, even though it is an atrocious system. Give the devil his due. He certainly needs it. Savagery gave the human race a necessary experience, which it handed down by means of the laws of heredity. Barbarism gave the human race another necessary experi- ence, which it handed down in the same manner. Chattel slavery did the same. Feudalism the same. And capitalism has also given the human race a necessary experience. All of these systems have given the human race experience which was necessary in order to develop it to the point where it is ready for Socialism and can operate the Socialist common- wealth successfully. We have now reached that point. We are growing into the Socialist commonwealth. To complete this process, it is necessary to remove capi- talism. 36 WHERE YOU GET OFF And capitalism is inevitably to be removed. It carries within itself the seed of its own destruction. .By its very nature, it concentrates wealth into the hands of a comparatively few and impoverishes the many. It goads the many into the necessity of expropriating the expropriators, tak- ing charge of industry themselves, and establishing the Socialist commonwealth. This concentration and this result are so sure that the So- cialists forecast them over half a century ago. Capitalism is therefore about to be replaced by a better system. To borrow an illustration, capitalism has been the scaffold- ing used for the building of a better system. It has been said that the vermiform appendix, the rudimen- tary tail, the gill slits, and other now useless parts of the human body, are merely remains of the scaffolding used in former ages for the purpose of building the present human body. Likewise, capitalism is but a part of the scaffolding used for the building of a better social system. Many people have mistaken the scaffolding for the house itself. But the thing to do is to tear away the now useless scaffold- ing. It has served its purpose. We will tear it away and move into the new house. He who would work for progress must cast off his ground- less prejudices against Socialism and get in line with evolution. Socialism is the greatest question now before the human race. To work for Socialism is the noblest thing a man or woman can do at this stage of human progress. The hour has come when every sincere man and woman should lay trifles aside and enlist their services in this mag- nificent movement. The question for you to decide is this : Shall I make a fruit- less effort to defeat progress by working against Socialism, or 'shall I ally myself with the forces of progress by working for Socialism ? I know how you will decide that question. You are not a back number. You are not a quitter. WHERE YOU GET OFF 37 You want to be numbered among the quick, not the dead. The time is ripe. The east is gray with the dawn of a better day. You will decide in favor of Socialism. FEEBLE OPPOSITION The incongruous accusations which our opponents make against us are laughable. The lofty opponents of Socialism rise superior to all such trifling things as logical reasoning. Anything that will pass for an argument is eagerly welcomed, no matter how false or ridic- ulous it may be. With them, arguments are so extremely scarce that the most dilapidated ones are bolstered up and stiffened with falsehood and pressed into service. They make no genuine attempt to reply to our granite blocks of argument. Why? Because they can not. Their attacks upon us are amazing in their feebleness. They remind one of a child with a toy hammer pecking at a boulder. Many of them are gifted men, but even a gifted man cannot successfully defend an indefensible system. They had better come over to Socialism and get on the posi- tive side. A negative position is intolerable. Socialism is the truth. There is nothing bad about it. It is all good. Consequently, if you read or hear anything bad about it, you can infallibly set it down as a falsehood. Socialism is the truth and nothing but the truth. The Socialist writers and speakers are on the right side. Therefore, even if they were otherwise disposed, the way they can do the cause the most good is by telling the truth. Our crafty opponents, on the contrary, are on the wrong side. Therefore, they are compelled to either lie or quit. They are paid in proportion to their ability to lie and de- ceive the peple. They never tire of telling whoppers about So- cialism. This is not the place to answer their so-called objections. You do not need them answered in order to convince you 38 WHERE YOU GET OFF that Socialism is right, and that it is decidedly to your interest to work for it. I have demonstrated those two propositions. But you will want to read up on the alleged objections in order to be armed for the opponents of Socialism when you meet them. In my book, "What's So and What Isn't," I have taken up all of the usual so-called objections to Socialism and answered them in detail. It is a corking good book. I know because I wrote it myself. Also because over one hundred and fifty thou- sand copies of it have been sold and it is still a stand-by and a regular seller. You ought to read it. You can get it from the National Office of the Socialist Party for fifteen cents in paper binding, or fifty cents in cloth binding. WHERE YOU GET >DFF 39 CHAPTER V. WHERE YOU GET ON We have seen how you work, what you get, what you want, and how you can .get it. The next thing in order is to tell you about the movement with which you need to identify yourself in order to secure this object. HONEST AND SINCERE You are now convinced that Socialism is the truth. I also believe that you are honest and sincere. If so, you should be a member of the Socialist party. Not merely a voter of the ticket, but a member of the organization. The Republican, Democratic and so-called Progressive parties are neither honest nor sincere. Each of them pretends to be run in the interest of the com- mon people. And each of them is in fact run for the benefit of the cap- italist parasites, big and little. Such concessions as they make to the working class are made because of the growing strength of the Socialist party. Such concessions are not willingly made, and do not represent their real views. They are simply scared out of them by the Socialists. In each of those three parties a public office is a private snap. Men seek the offices, instead of letting the offices seek them. These office-seekers constitute one of the most nauseating nuisances of the age. They display the most unlimited gall and shameless selfishness in imposing themselves upon a long-suffer- ing people. They make false and hollow pretenses of standing for the public good. The public good is in fact the least of their troubles. Their object is to secure the spoils of office and to feather their own nests. There is no deception so low that they will not stoop to it in order to secure a nomination or to fool the people into voting for them. They are blatant demagogues. They get their campaign funds from the capitalists. They are the political representatives of the capitalists. They talk mighty big and do mighty little. They are. not honest and sincere. 40 WHERE YOU GET OFF On the other hand, the rank and file of the Republican, Democratic and alleged Progressive parties are for the most part honest and sincere men and women. They ought to vote with and become members of an honest and sincere party. - During the past few years, thousands of men and women who have the real good of humanity at heart have been thinking about public affairs. In the libraries the books on civics, sociol- ogy and economics have been in constant demand. These people have been groping groping toward the light. Thousands of them have found it. They have come into the Socialist movement. There is no other place for an honest and sincere person to land, if he or she investigates and tries to find out the truth. Millions of honest and sincere people are still groping. They, too, will find Socialism and adopt it in due time. Sham, pretense and hypocrisy can hold sway for a long time. But the truth always puts them to rout in the end. THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT I suppose people who are not Socialists think we are a funny lot. They see us give up our spare time to arrange and attend meetings. They see us run our legs off to distribute literature by the ton, and not get a red cent for the work, but even pay for the literature ourselves. They see us deny ourselves many of the necessaries of life in order to furnish the funds to lay our ideas before the people. And so they no doubt think we are a funny lot. Or, at least, they used to. But of late somehow people have begun to treat us as if we were human beings. No doubt this is because they have at last begun to suspect that we are not crazy, after all, but that there is something in what we say. Anyhow, no matter what one's attitude may be, there is nothing in current history quite so absorbingly interesting as the Socialist movement. If one believes it to be a grand thing, it is decidedly interesting for that reason. On the other hand, if one believes it to be a sinister thing, it is also decidedly interesting for that reason. WHERE YOU GET OFF 41 There is no other phase of human activity which presents such a picture of constant effort and amazing persistence as this movement. The best and most important work of the Socialist party is done by the thousands of enthusiastic men and women all over the nation, who find no task too great for them to undertake for the beloved cause. They are heroes and heroines. They per- form prodigies. The nation-wide movement is a kaleidoscopic scene of busy effort. The volume of work done by the party organization has grown constantly and enormously. Only a few years ago the work of the National Office of the Socialist party was done by three or four people. Now it takes many times that number to cope with the work, even in an "off year." The truth is that there are no off years in the So- cialist party. While we necessarily must have the offices, we are not after the offices simply. We are in the field to establish a great principle. Therefore, when other parties have an off year, because there are no officials to elect, we are up and at it as usual. Tons 'upon tons of leaflets, books, pamphlets and supplies are shipped out to all parts of the country, to be put to good use by willing workers. Letters are written by the thousands. Circulars are sent out by the tens of thousands. Organizers are sent out to, strengthen the weak places and to sow the seed where there has been no crop of Socialists as yet. In addition to its main work as the political expression of the working class, every strike finds the movement lined up in favor of the strikers. In the political work the movement is always on the firing line and in the thick of the battle. And in the economic work it furnishes financial and moral aid for those who are on the firing line and in the thick of the battle. We propose to keep up the fight until every man and woman is guaranteed an opportunity to earn a living, and to receive their full earnings, through the collective ownership and control of those industries which are now used by their private owners for the purpose of gouging others. CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION Please don't understand me to say that Alfred Tennyson was a Socialist. To the best of my knowledge he was not. Yet we Socialists are trying to put one of his sayings into practice. 42 WHERE YOU GET OFF We are accused of stirring up strife, and all that, but in fact we are the harbingers of peace. We have the only cure for war. And we are the only people in the whole world who are trying to ward off a bloody struggle between the classes. We want . to put into practical application the words of Tennyson, when in his poem, "Love Thou Thy Land," he says: "So let the change which conies be free To ingroove itself with that which flies, And work a joint of state, that plies Its office, moved with sympathy." To show how difficult it is to put this advice into practice, he proceeds to say: "A saying hard to shape in act; For all the past of Time reveals A bridal dawn of thunder peals Wherever Thought hath wedded Fact." He used his poetic license. He says that all social changes have been accompanied by war. Not all of them have. But most of the great ones have. There may be worse things than war. But war is a great scourge and a great brutalizer. We Socialists would all like to see the great change come without bloodshed. Every person who is working for Socialism is working for a peaceful transition. Every person who is working against Socialism, or merely holding aloof, is helping to bring on a reign of terror. The Socialist party has started out on its career with a full knowledge of its high mission. The time has come in the history of the world for conscious evolution to take the place of the blind development of the past. We Socialists know full well that the remorseless economic laws remorseless and at the same time capable of being made grateful and beneficent are working right toward Socialism. We are assisting the economic laws. In doing this we stand for one great object and for numer- ous minor objects. WHERE YOU GET OFF 43 OUR GREAT OBJECT Our great object is this: We propose that the exploiting industries shall be collectively owned and controlled. The present private ownership of these industries enables the private owners to get for themselves most of the earnings of the rest of the people. Socialism will abolish this exploitation. It will make these industries public or collective property, owned by all the people and run for the benefit of all the people. Then, the industries being no longer owned by capitalist parasites, the people will therefore no longer be gouged out of most of their earnings, but will receive their full earnings and enjoy them. This will give them the time, the means, the opportunity and the disposition to improve themselves physically, mentally, mor- ally and spiritually. It will result in a reign of genuine happiness on the earth, and in the development of a race of real men and women, big- minded, big-hearted, broad and wholesome. That is the great object of Socialism. We are always working for that great object. It is our ideal. It is our inspiration. It is the thing that causes us to open up our pocketbooks and deprive ourselves of the necessaries of life in order to place the printed truth before the eyes of our non- Socialist brothers and sisters. It is the thing that causes us to spend hours and days and weeks and months and even years of our time, without pecuniary compensation, in arranging meetings and distributing literature, in order that the truth may penetrate the intellects of our non- Socialist fellow-men and women. To every genuine Socialist, everywhere, this great object is the ideal, inspiration and guiding star. Ever and always, our eyes are on that goal. Ever and always, in spite of all the obstacles, we are pa- tiently and persistently making our way toward that goal. It puts beauty in our lives. It puts the pure passion of the dawn in our hearts. It puts the glory of the sunlight in our souls. 44 WHERE YOU GET OFF OUR MINOR OBJECTS While patiently and persistently making our way toward this great goal, we avail ourselves of every opportunity to gain minor objects which will strengthen us in the fight for the reali- zation of our ultimate aim. These minor objects are stated in our national platform, after the statement of our great object. We stand for the collective ownership and democratic man- agement of railroads, wire and wireless telegraphs and tele- phones, express services, steamboat lines, and all Other social means of transportation and communication, and of all large- scale industries. We stand for the immediate acquirement by the municipali- ties, the states, or the federal government of all grain elevators, stock yards, storage warehouses, and other distributing agencies, in order to reduce the present extortionate cost of living. We stand for the extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil wells, forests and water power. We stand for the further conservation and development of natural resources for the use and benefit of all the people; by scientific forestation and timber protection; by the reclamation of arid and swamp tracts ; by the storage of flood waters and the utilization of water power ; by the stoppage of the present extrav- agant waste of the soil and of the products of mines and oil wells ; and by the development of highway and waterway systems. We stand for the collective ownership of land wherever practicable, and, in cases where such ownership is impracticable, the appropriation by taxation of the annual rental yalue of all land held for speculation or exploitation. We stand for the collective ownership and democratic man- agement of the banking and currency system. We stand for the immediate government relief of the unem- ployed by the extension of all useful public works; all persons employed on such works to be engaged directly by the govern- ment under a work-day of not more than eight hours and at not less than the prevailing union wages; the government also to establish employment bureaus; to lend money to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works, and to take such other measures within its power as will lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of the capitalist class. We stand for the conservation of human resources, par- WHERE YOU GET OFF 45 ticularly of the lives and well-being of the workers and their families; by shortening the workday in keeping with the in- creased productiveness of machinery; by securing to every worker a rest period of not less than a day and a half in each week ; by securing a more effective inspection of workshops, fac- tories and mines; by forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of age; by the co-operative organization of the industries in the federal penitentiaries for the benefit of the convicts and their dependents ; by forbidding the interstate trans- portation of the products of child labor, of convict labor and of all uninspected factories and mines; by abolishing the profit sys- tem in government work, and substituting either the direct hire of labor or the awarding of contracts to co-operative groups of workers ; by establishing minimum wage scales ; and by abol- ishing official charity and substituting a non-contributory system of old age pensions, a general system of insurance by the state of all its members against unemployment and invalidism and a system of compulsory insurance by employers of their workers, without cost to the latter, against industrial diseases, accidents and death. We stand for the absolute freedom of speech, press and assemblage. We stand for the adoption of a graduated income tax, the increase of the rates of the present corporation tax and the ex- tension of inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the value of the estate and to nearness of kin the proceeds of these taxes to be employed in the socialization of industry. We stand for the abolition of the monopoly ownership of patents and the substitution of collective ownership, with direct rewards to inventors by premiums or royalties. We stand for unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women. We stand for the adoption of the initiative, referendum and recall, and of proportional representation, nationally as well as locally. We stand for the abolition of the Senate and of the veto power of the president. We stand for the election of the president and the vice- president by direct vote of the people. We stand for the abolition of the power usurped by the Supreme Court of the United States to pass upon the constitu- 46 WHERE YOU GET OFF tionality of the legislation enacted by Congress ; national laws to be repealed only by act of Congress or by a referendum vote of the whole people. We stand for the abolition of the present restrictions upon the amendment of the constitution, so that that instrument may be made amendable by a majority of the voters in the country. We stand for the granting of the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia, with representation in Congress, and a democratic form of municipal government for purely local affairs. We stand for the extension of democratic government to all United States territory. We stand for the enactment of further measures for general education, and particularly for vocational education in useful pursuits, the bureau of education to be made a department. * We stand for the enactment of further measures for the conservation of health; the creation of an independent bureau of health, with such restrictions as will secure full liberty to all schools of practice. We stood for the separation of the Bureau of Labor from the Depajtment of Commerce and Labor, and its elevation to the rank of a department. This has been done since our platform was written. We stand for the abolition of all federal district courts and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals ; state courts to have jurisdiction in all cases arising between citizens of the several states and foreign corporations; and the election of all judges for short terms. We stand for the immediate curbing of the power of the courts to issue injunctions. We stand for the free administration of the law. We stand for the calling of a convention for the revision of the constitution of the United States. METHODS AND RESULTS The unique methods which we use in order to gain our ob- jects, and the wonderful results which we have already accom- plished in various countries, including our own, make an entranc- ing story. It is a continued story. It is told from day to day and from week to week in the current party publications, especially those issued by the party organization. WHERE YOU GET OFF 47 I shall only give a little hint of it here. The Socialist movement is world-wide. It is organized in every civilized country. It has an international organization, with headquarters at Brussels, Belgium. The Socialist vote increases persistently in all countries. Fortunately, it is not a mushroom growth. On the contrary, it is steady and normal. This means that people do not come to us until they are convinced that we are right. And when they come, they come to stay. In 1900, the Socialist vote of the United States was 96,931. In 1904, it was 408,230. In 1908, it was 424,488. In 1912, it was 906,840. In 1867, the Socialist vote of Germany was 30,000. In 1877, it was 493,000. In 1887, it was 763,000. In 1892, it was 1,876,000. In 1897, it was 2,107,000. In 1903, it was 3,010,000. In 1907, it was 3,251,000. In 1912, it was 4,238,919. The other civilized countries tell a similar story. In 1870, the total Socialist vote of the world was, in round numbers, 30,000. In 1880, it was 494,000. In 1890, it was 1,600,000. In 1900, it was 4,600,000. In 1910, it was 10,000,000. And it is still growing steadily and persistently. It does not require an expert mathematician to figure out from this that the time is not far distant when the Socialists will capture the civilized world. We have already elected over six hundred members of the various congresses and parliaments. I should like to give you a list of them. I have kept a list for years. But the figures in- crease so often that they would be incorrect by the time they were set up in type. We have also elected thousands of city, county and other local officials. Furthermore, our elected officials have accomplished won- ders. We are steadily and persistently nearing the goal. 48 WHERE YOU GET OFF BE UP AND STIRRING Here is my last word. Heed it. Identify yourself with this great timely world movement. Join the Socialist party organization. Make your life worth living by spending your spare time working for the great cause. Be up and stirring. Heed the eloquent words of Charles Mackay: "Men of thought be up and stirring night and day ; Sow the seed withdraw the curtain clear the way! Men of action, aid and cheer them as ye may! There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to beam, There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow, There's a midnight blackness changing into gray. Men of thought and men of action, clear the way! "Once the welcome light has broken, who shall say What the unimagined glories of the day? What the evil that shall perish in its ray? Aid it dawning, tongue and pen; Aid it, hope of honest men ; Aid it, paper; aid it, type; Aid it, for the hour is ripe, And our earnest must not slacken into play. Men of thought and men of action, clear the way! "Lo ! a cloud's about to vanish from the day, And a brazen wrong to crumble into clay. Lo! the right's about to conquer; clear the way! With the right shall many more Enter smiling at the door; With the giant wrong shall fall Many others great and small, That for ages long have held us for their prey. Men of thought and men of action, clear the way!" A 000 047 976 THE CENTER OF SOCIALIST ACTIVITY IN THE UNITED STATES IS THE NATIONAL OFFICE OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY Departments Executive Conducting official business, and sale of dues stamps. Literature This department publishes and sells books, pamphlets and leaflets, aggregating in a year's time millions of copies. A large descriptive catalog of books, pamphlets and official supplies will be sent free on application. Also what to read on Socialism. The Party Builder This is the official newspaper bulletin of the party, eight pages in size, published weekly, 50 cents per year, sample copy free. Information This department conducts investi- gations, compiles helpful information and furnishes same free, covering a wide latitude of subjects ia all fields of social activity. Woman's The work among women with its spe- cial propaganda is conducted by a woman's official secretary. Young People The Young People's League forms a part of the Socialist organization the world over. Its work in this country is handled by a department in the National Office. Translator-Secretaries Ten foreign federations are affiliated with the party and have translator-secretaries in the National Office. They are Finnish, Bohemian, Jewish, Polish, Italian, South Slavic, German, Hun- garian, Slovak, and Scandinavian. Literature in all of these languages is available. Inquiries on any phase of Socialist work will be cheerfully answered by addressing Socialist Party, 111 N. Market St., Chicago, 111.