Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/14

 14 A girl goes into a factory to work; in five hours she has turned out enough goods to pay for her "keep" for that one day. But she does not stop at the end of that time, for she has hired herself out for the price of her "keep," for a ten hour day. The other five hours she works for the man or the company that owns the machine. and the amount for this work is never paid to the worker. This amount we call "surplus value," and while many of the supporters of the capitalist system deny the theory of surplus value, proofs can be piled on proofs to show that the workers do not get the full value of all that they produce.

Every effort that the workers make to get higher wages is an effort to get more of this value that they have created. This is the cause of the strikes that are so common in manufacturing communities. Every successful attempt on the part of the factory owners to secure more of this surplus value results in the reduction of the laborer's wages. This struggle for more between these two classes, the wage earners on the one side and the factory owners on the other. is called the Class Struggle. A scientific Socialist is known by his or her understanding and acceptance of these three principles that I have briefly outlined: 1st. "Economic Determinism," which is the theory of the evolution of industry and its resulting influence over all social institutions; 2nd. "Surplus value," which is the value the laborer creates and does not get paid for; 3rd. "The Class struggle,"