Page:Eleven Blind Leaders (1910?).pdf/22

 brought back all the old conditions against which the workers of England had fought for thirty years. They finally got the Ten Hour law declared null and void by the courts. Later on, with better organization of the workers, and a higher development of machinery, the 10 hour day became more or less general in English industry.

Marx concludes from these facts that "the creation of a normal work day is, therefore, the product of a protracted civil war, more or less dissembled, between the capitalist class and the working class. As the contest takes place in the arena of modern industry, it first breaks out in the home of that industry—England. The English factory workers were the champions, not only of the English, but of the modern working class generally."

Karl Marx' "Capital" was published in 1867, and since that time the experience of the labor movement in every capitalist country has shown conclusively that so-called "labor laws" are a delusion and a snare so long as there is no economic organization of the workers powerful enough to enforce them directly in the industries.

In the Report of the Belgium Labor Party to the International Socialist Congress, held at Stuttgart, Germany, 1907, I find mention of all the more important "labor laws" of that country. I have already referred to the comparatively weak syndicalist or union movement in Belgium, as shown by that same report. The Belgium Labor Party counted 145,781 affiliated members, and cast 469,094 socialist votes in 1906. Yet the Report shows that none of these labor laws that might be of value if enforced, are effective. For example, to quote from the Report:

"The law instituting inspection of labor conditions: That inspection is absolutely illusory. The inspectors, chosen by the government, are more often guardians of the capitalists' interests than of the workers' interests. The employer is always notified in advance of the coming of the inspector, which enables him, superficially, to put his factory in order."