Hie Nome Industrial Worker
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Nome, Alaska, July 9, 1909.
Judge Hannum’s address on the
Fourth of July was somuch of a sameness
JUDGE with the addresses given by Fourth of
July orators all over the country of late
MANNUM’S years that there is not very much occa
sion to take particular notice of it.
ADDRESS However, when he attempted to twist
Lincoln's statement that the nation could
not exist half slave and half free to make
apply to the increasing number of Mongolians pouring into the
oo&ntry, as if that were ;he main cause of unemployment among
tJie workers; it may be as well to investigate matters a little.
The absolute cause of unemployment today, as well as the
CKE.se of all our other economic ills, is the capitalist system itself.
Private ownership of the means of production, enabling capitalists
fcts pile up millions of dollars extracted from the brawn and muscle
vfi 4he workers of the land and till their store houses to overflow
ing with the product of the industrials plants, and this process
oacimued until so much of labor’s product is piled up that it is
impossible for the workers to buy it back, causes unemployment
ttaeause the workers are then discharged until the glutted market
ea& be relieved by the sale of the goods on hand. At the height
of capitalist prosperity, there are thousands of workmen idle, and
in panic times, caused by overproduction, the number swells away
Is£o the millions. Lincoln’s words are literally true today. This
msJt'on. cannot exist with the immense majority of the population
wage slaves and a small minority in the role of exploiters. Our
ts*:*St of Lincoln’s words will stand the test.
-Judge Hannum also referred to different kinds of labor. He
«as to understand that the worker must not think he is the
*x&j one who is ever called upon to work hard. The lawyer and
crtisec professional men who are called upon to work with their
fcKraaas, -often work as hard and sometimes much harder than the
manual la'borer.
Taking the case of the liwyer we can do no better than repro
duce a couple of paragraphs from a former editorial in the Indus
tzxai Worker, covering much the same question:
"An odd parasite here and there with a natural and perfectly
seasonable distaste for manual work, enters some picayune busi
wkss (or profession) with the intent of obtaining a share of the
surplus value that the voncers produce. He himself produces
wihhw;, but deceives himself into the notion that he is doing use
ffmS work while he strives to annex a portion of that surplus value.
"'-‘Granted he works hard. Cases exist where from morn till
n^girt the wholly' useless cockroach is busier than many a worker
ue a. productive occupation; but it is the labor of the exploiter, not
aftke exploited- He lives off the sweat of others men’s brows and
exploits the surplus value of their product.”
Lawyers are parasites pure and simple. Their main efforts
acw. <4evoted to adjusting differences between property owners,
<jc to helping some deserving capitalist find a way to evade the
feuc. ©ace in a while one of them will take a case for a working
And do his best, when he sees his reputation for fairness
nse&s a little building up. Under a sane system the service of
lawyers in criminal cases would be unnecessary, the judge and
jjiagp being quite capable of determining the guilt or innocence of
tile prisoner, and as there will be no private capital under such
a..-system that can be used to enslave others, there will be no civil
eweaa.
Jft. lawyer’s income is wholly derived from labor’s produo#,
•iSfcer directly or indirectly. He adds nothing to the wealth of the
xmtk&L. Under this system, we admit, he is of some value, but
Eaaryers are among the evils which will be eradicated when the
araricsrs assume the running of affairs.
I<o one at all conversant with world
affairs at the present time can escape the
FREEDOM conclusion that the by no means distant
future holds in store for humanity some
BY swift, sweeping and farreaching changes
in social and industrial institutions.
'PURCHASE There is evidence upon every hand to
conclusively show that capitalist civiliza
tion has already passed the zenith of its
power and is even now tottering upon its slave foundations in such
x manner as to portend its rapid approach to that oblivion it is so
i*t|y entitled to adorn by virtue of its crimes and iniquities.
Capitalist rule is no longer tolerable. Under it humankind is
0 longer able to provide for its material existence. Millions are
1 open revolt against its baneful sway and these are being added
to with such rapidity that they will soon become an unconquerable
hopt, and. the doom of capitalism be sealed.
If the movement of the oppressed toilers of the world against
(jfeeir brutal exploiters js anything, it is essentially revolutionary.
&4«a.a make for nothing short of the abolition of the wage system
i which is builded the entire structure of capitalist robbery
waft cole. It means the downfall and death of Capital and the up
mss ,of Labor to freedom and life.
To attain to the mastery, of industry upon which their freedom
from, capitalist bondage and exploitation depends, renders itne
iwiinrj that the workers, as a class, gain control of the machinery
of government, as it is through control of this powerful instrument
of repression alone that their capitalist masters are enabled to
hold them in subjection to their merciless profit-mongering
scheme. As the workers : greatly outnumber their exploiters,
victory is easily within reach once the workers become conscious
of their class interests and the power that comes from overwhel
ming numbers. Under such circumstances, it is ridiculous folly to
even suggest a resort to any subterfuge for the purpose of disguis
ing the revolutionary purpose of the movement of Labor against
Capital. It should be openly proclaimed from the housetops so
that all may know and none be deceived. Let it be hurled in the
teeth of our capitalist enemy that he is to be ruthlessly stripped
of his power to rule and rob. That his alleged property rights
are to be abrogated with as little conscince and scruple as has been
shown by the capitalist class itself in rivetting the chains of sla
very upon the limbs of Labor.
Mush heads !there are, of the Victor Berger type, who loudly
proclaim the purpose of the revolution to be the purchase of the
property of capitalist class, by the triumphant proletariat once it
has attained its political victory. More nauseous tommyrot was
never puked forth in the name of revolution. Nothing more insult
ing was ever suggested to slaves struggling to frse themselves
from the chains of their bondage.
What is Capital ?
It is a term applied to the means of production when used for
the purpose of obtaining surplus value from wage labor. As all
the means of production is used for that purpose at present, the
entire industrial plant of the world functions as capital. It is ca
pitalist property.
Now, then, what determines the value of this property, or,
more properly speaking, where does its value lie? The value
herein referred to is exchange value.. The value attached to it as
an investment. Let us examine this for a moment. Any given
industrial plant is worth in the market, as an investment, a sum
determined by the amount of revenue, or pro at, it will bring to the
investor. Let us assume that 10 per cent, per annum is the nor
mal rate of profit in the capitalist world at a given time. Then an
industrial plant that would bring to its owner a clear profit of
$100,000 per annum would be worth $1,000,000 as an investment.
But whence comes this $100,000 profit? It can only come as the
value produced by the wage slaves employed in the industry in ex
cess of the amount received by them as wages. This is -what Marx
terms “surplus value.” The establishment in question then be
comes possessed of a value of $1,000,000 because it affords its
owner a means of commanding the services of enough slaves to
create $100,000 per annum over and above their own wages. Such
being the case it is manifestly clear that this value of $1,000,000 in
reality lies in the body of workmen whose services are at the
command of the capitalist, or concern, that owns the means of
production embodied in the plant. This plant, or establishment, is
merely a means whereby the owner can at all times command the
the only value carrying and value producing property known to
capitalist civilization, ie.,a body of working men, wage slaves.
As this analysis applies to a single capitalist industry so does
it apply to capitalist industry taken as a whole. The only property
possessed by the capitalist class which can be rated in terms of
exchange value is the working class, the slave class. This prop
erty alone brings revenue to the coffers of capital because it is the
only value producing factor in this most glorious civilization. The
value that seems to lie in resources of the earth and machinery of
production lies there in appearance only. These are but the title
deeds to the human chattels whose services are always at the
command of those who have title deeds to such resources and
machinery.
If the workers vanish from an industrial plant, and none others
come to take their place, all exchange value likewise disappears.
The owner, formerly a wealthy capitalist, will find himself a
pauper, if perchance, his eggs were all stowed in this one capital
ist basket.
With an understanding of capitalist property in its real signi
ficance he who would even suggest to the workers that they pur
chase anything from their masters in the way of deliverance from
their chains is either a contemptible knave or a fitttng subject for
a home for feeble-minded chumps.
For slaves to expect to free themselves by purchasing them
selves from their masters is a piece of folly not even exceeded by
that of having been for ages frightened into submission to roboery
at the hands of rulers by the ghost stories poured into their ears
by the reptiles and scullions of those rulers.
Freedom is not a thing to be attained by purchase, like snuff,
or cheese, or cat skins it is something to be taken, and at no matter
what cost in tears and bio id. If it is worth having it it worth tak
ing, and a slave class that would even attempt to obtain ic by any
other sort of purchase would be a slave class in whose veins runs
ditch water, rather than good red blood.
Those who, outside of the Socialist movement, would fain
check its growth, or even destroy it, make no more ridiculous
show of themselves than do those of-its would be disciples who
would sugar-coat the revolutionary pill by proposing to bribe a
gang of capitalist coyotes to withdraw their fangs from the quiver
ing flesh of Labor.
Buying out capitalists. Bah! The revolution they will face
will not be a revolution by purchase. At least the sort cf pur
chase that some silly twaddlers have in mind.—Western Clarion.
DR. J.H. MUSTARD
Dr. W. D’Arcy Chace
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E. W. BUkROUGHS, ]Supt
FELIX BR9WN
Buy a
UNION MADE__SVIT
I The Best
1 in Townl
QUS BROWN
Miners and Merchants Bank
Nome, Alaska.
Capital $100,000.00
Workingmen's Accounts Solicited.
—•—• »
Nome Bank &. Trust Company
Capital Fully Paid $135,000.00
F. H. THATCHER
Manager
H. A. TAYLOR
President
R. E. TRENGOVE, Cashier
EUGENE E. AILES
Vice-President
ALASKA BANKING & SAFE DEPOSIT GO.
Paid-up Capital, $125,000.00
Established June 1900.
Consolidated with Bank Cape Nome Sept. 1905.
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MRS. T. SHAUGHNESSY
408 FRONT ST.
Dry Goods, LADIES' SUITS and COATS
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