Page:James Connolly - Socialism Made Easy (1909).djvu/13

Rh The wage worker is oppressed under this system in the interest of a class of capitalist investors who may be living thousands of miles away and whose very names are unknown to him.

He is, therefore, interested in every revolt of Labor all over the world, for the very individuals against whom that revolt may be directed may—by the wondrous mechanism of the capitalist system—through shares, bonds, national and municipal debts—be the parasites who are sucking his blood also.

That is one of the underlying facts inspiring the internationalism of Labor and Socialism.

''But the Socialist proposals, they say, would destroy the individual character of the worker. He would lean on the community, instead of upon his own efforts.''

Yes: Giving evidence before the Old Age Pensions Committee in England, Sir John Dorrington, M. P., expressed the belief that the “provision of Old Age Pensions by the State, for instance, would do more harm than good. It was an objectionable principle, and would lead to improvidence.”

There now! You will always observe that it is some member of what an Irish revolutionist called “the canting, fed classes,” who is anxious that nothing should be done by the State to give the working class habits of “improvidence,” or to do us any “harm.” Dear, kind souls!

To do them justice they are most consistent. For both in public and private their efforts are most whole-heartedly bent in the same direction, viz., to prevent improvidence—ON OUR PART.

They lower our wages—to prevent improvidence; they