Page:Jay Fox - Amalgamation (1923).pdf/5

Rh. Modern capitalism leaves a trail behind it as bloody as that of its predecessors and a record of cruelty and injustice just as black.

Modern capitalism had its beginning with the discovery of steam power and the invention of machinery. Before the advent of machinery the workers owned their hand tools and worked mostly in their own homes. The development of machinery soon left the hand workers without employment and they had to seek work from the capitalists who owned the costly machinery. Thus they became dependent upon the employers, who were not slow to take advantage of their new-born power. Spurred on by visions of wealth and aflluence the new capitalists began at once to exploit Labor to the limit. Without organization, the helpless workers were compelled to labor sixteen hours a day.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century factory workers a to be on the job at 4 A. M. and work until dark for a wage that was a mere pittance. A first class mechanic got 50c a day. Laborers worked for three and four dollars a month and board. Women toiled in the cotton mills from dawn till dark for $1.50 a week. The cost of food was not low in proportion to wages. M/heat was $2.10 a bushel, corn 75c a bushel. Pork sold for 20c a pound and bread was 8c a loaf. Thus it will be seen that as an exploiter of labor, capitalism made a good beginning, and the precedent then established has been loyally adhered to ever since. Every atom of energy that Labor possessed has been coined into dollars, and we have today the doubtful distinction of being the richest country in the world, while millions of our workers are without the means of life.

The modern factory is an evolution, a growth, an amalgamation of individual craft shops into great industrial units. When capitalism was young and inexperienced every trade had its separate existence and its separate owner, and each owner and employer was the keen competitor of every other man in his line of work. In those days competition was said to be the "life of trade," the incentive to capacity production without which men would stagnate and deteriorate. However, modern capitalists have discovered the utter fallacy of that idea, and have discarded it, after suffering tremendous losses through its ruinous application. But they still believe in it for working people, however, and insist most emphatically upon the application of its principles in their