Long before the coming of the World Socialist Movement, it was understood by the economists that all wealth is produced by labour. How then, it was questioned, can profits be accounted for? If labour produces all wealth why do not the labourers receive their full product? The answer to this question was not known until it came from Karl Marx. Wages, said Marx, are not the full product of labour. Nor are wages any,definite part of the product. Wages are simply the selling price of the worker in the market. This selling price, on the average, is just enough to keep the worker in good condition to do work and reproduce someone to take his or her place. For instance, if the worker toils ten hours and produces $10.00 worth of wealth, he does not receive $10.00, nor $5.00. If $2.00 will support him he receives $2.00, and no more. These $2.00 are his wages and the remaining $8.00 are the profits of the capitalist. If the hours of the worker be increased, and better machines introduced, the workers' product is increased, let us say, to $15.00. Do the workers' wages go up? No. Instead of rising they fall. They are now but $1.50.
The theory of surplus value is the beginning of all socialist knowledge. It shows the capitalist in his true light, that of an idler and parasite. It proves to the workers that capitalists should no longer be permitted to take any of their product. Without this knowledge, the worker will never fight along correct lines. With this knowledge, he will never stop fighting until Socialism, which will give to the working class the whole of its product, shall be fully realised.
An understanding of the class struggle, which we have repeatedly discussed before, comes only from a knowledge of the economic interpretation of history. If the conditions of a people are determined by the nature of the tools they use, of the work they do, and by their relation to these tools (that is, whether they own them or not), then we may easily obtain an insight into the working class struggle. All the great revolutions of history, said Marx, have been class struggles. So, too, must be the movement of the workers. No class has been really free until it has ruled society. Therefore the working class, to be free, must rule society. But the workers, when they free themselves, will make slaves of no one. Machines will be so developed that everyone can labor and live in freedom. Long ago slavery was necessary to the end that the master might develop civilization. In socialism a higher and better civilisation will be open to all.
Until Marx, it was generally thought that history was made by great men. Great men won battles, made treaties of peace, created constitutions and laws, ruled nations, and saved humanity from destruction. Marx and Engels showed, through their study of history, that this was a childish view of life and of government. The great facts of history-its wars, its governments, its art, science, and literature-these were created by a deeper social force. This force, said Marx, was the economic or material force. People lived as they did and acted as they did because they made their living in a certain way. If they used small, crude tools, and the soil they worked. was poor, their ideas would be much different from what they would be if they used larger and more productive tools upon richer soil. The nature of man's social life depends chiefly upon the physical conditions under which he is living. This same principle is true in matters of morality. An individual, or nation, or a class, will finally come to think that right which is to his material advantage. Nations make war in order to add to their possessions. Individuals engage in such work or business as will yield them the largest pay or profits. A class will fight to the death with another class over profits or wages.
In war, killing people and burning cities is thought to be a patriotic work. If successful it is considered to be right and fine. In industry, the capitalists will enslave small children, and the profits wrung from their pitiful toil goes to build churches and universities and support Christian missions. The murderous capitalist who robs cradles to get his gold comes to be praised as most "benevolent," "virtuous," "religious," etc.
When the worker, either through experience or a study of Socialism, come to know this truth, he acts accordingly. He retains absolutely no respect for the property "rights" of the profit-takers. He will use any weapon which will win his fight. He knows that the present laws of property are made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not hesitate to break them. He knows that whatever action advances the interests of the working class is right because it will save the workers from destruction and death. A knowledge of economic determinism places the worker squarely oil his intellectual feet and makes him bold and independent of mind.
The necessity and value of a knowledge of socialism to the working class need not be emphasized. Into every country has gone the Socialist Party with its message of enlightenment and hope. This part of its work has just begun. During our political campaigns, the educational work of the Party is especially effective. It can then get the ear of the working class and emphasise the great truths it bears, drawing the attention of the working class to socialism and spreading a desire to understand it. The mission of the Socialist Party is therefore twofold:
First, it must lay bold of all the powers of political government and prevent them from being used against the industrial organization of the workers.
Second, it must be the bearer of sound knowledge, using its great and growing organisation to teach socialism.
The Socialist Party through its knowledge of the law governing social progress gains an insight into the future which is impossible to those ignorant of social evolution. Through the study of history, we come to understand the part played by revolutions. Whenever a social class has become powerful enough to rule society it has seized the reins of government. When the working class is strong enough at the ballot box, it will make an end to capitalism. That period in which it will be engaged in the work of seizing all the powers of industrial and political government will be the period of the social revolution. Of course, we cannot tell when this will come. Neither can we tell whether the period of revolution will be long or short? Both will depend upon several facts. The most important question is, how long will take for the working class to educate and organize itself. This will depend much on what the capitalists will do. The revolution might be hastened by a recession. It might be retarded by reforms or a war. But it is bound to come. That the Socialist Party can clearly see. For the revolution to be successful, it will have to result in the common ownership and democratic control of the fields, the factories, the mines and communications by the workers. When a worker understands socialism, he or she does not ask who will do the hard work, will socialism divvy up the fruits of labour, will socialism destroy incentive and similar questions. The questions which come into our minds about socialism are few and simple. "The less work the better," is the motto which the workers must set themselves. Let all the wealth now wasted in wars, in the commerce of the market - let all this waste stop. Let the immense profits which now go to the capitalists be taken by the workers. Let the workers be liberated for the many inventions and the development of better processes, which would rapidly follow inside Socialism. If all this were to be done, it is readily seen that a small portion of the day, or a few days per month, or a few months steady work per year, will yield wealth in abundance. It would be foolish for us to say how much a worker should work because we do not know how much wealth lie will desire for himself and his family. It is not for us to determine that. But it is most reasonable to suppose that with socialism an individual working eight hours a day for four months in the year will produce food, clothing, and shelter in abundance for a family. Those who will not work will probably not be permitted to starve. They will undoubtedly be tenderly cared for in insane hospitals and nursed back to health. At present, even, all healthful people wish to work, yet none desire life-long slavery to the profit of others.
The working class, through securing freedom for itself, will liberate humanity itself. Socialism will free not only the slave but the slave-driver and the slave-owner. Socialism today makes war upon the enemies of the working class. When it is victorious, the enemies of the working class will embrace it. Peace and brotherhood will come with freedom.
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