Page:Alexander Jonas - Reporter and Socialist (1885).djvu/31

 known among them? But, if this be not the case; if, to the contrary, the immense wealth thus created be used only by 5,000 to keep themselves in luxury and idleness, while the remaining 95,000 continue to live a life of deprivation and suffering, it will be clear to even the simplest minded, that it is not the lack of means and the scarceness of products, but the faulty and unjust distribution of the goods produced by the people that causes a condition of affairs as I have just described it to you.

The picture I have unfolded before your mind's eye—the political influences left aside altogether—gives you an idea of the economic condition of nations before the invention of steam machinery, and of the development of the present state of affairs, after the application of steam, to the present process of producing wealth.

But I do not quite understand how those few became possessed of the tremendous power of compelling the masses to work so hard and to give up all the wealth they produce?

There we come to the pivotal point about which the whole question revolves. If a workman in a machine shop is sick and tired of the long hours he has to work, and of the small pay he gets, what can he do?

He can go, and get some other place to work in; sometimes he finds one, sometimes he does not.

Quite correct. But suppose he finds other employment: do you believe that his wages will be higher and that he will have to work less hours?

I think that the wages and eye of labor in the different branches of industry are about the same everywhere in this country.

Indeed they are. Therefore, what could the workman do in order to improve his condition?

(hesitatingly): I really don't know — — —

Of course you don't. For, nobody else knows. Could he begin to manufacture on his own account in competition with the large manufacturers?