Page:The Advancing Proletariat (1917).pdf/15

Rh OF PROPERTY is a confiscatory system, and little property disappears before big property. The property of the craftsman—his skill—tends to evaporate. A new mechanical device, a newly discovered chemical process, or a new combination of industrial forces may scatter that skill among the insensate machines, or absolutely displace it. "The whole tendency of skill is away from the individual and in the direction of the group" where, through the agency of the machine, it translates itself into mere quickness of action coupled with a mild form of manual dexterity.

Stripped of his PROPERTY the "aristocrat of labor" sinks to the level of the common herd. The machine process of production racks the structure of Craft Unionism. Built upon the basis of a transitory property, it cannot withstand the aggressions of the vastly superior property of the Industrial Plutocracy. However, the craft union notion, like many others, dies hard, and we see the surviving craftsmen attempting to fortify themselves by organizing the machine operatives in the terms of the crafts. Such organizations cannot be permanent for THE PROPERTY IDEA IS UNTENABLE AMONG MACHINE WORKERS. The very soul of private property is its accompanying right of EXCLUSION; and exclusion cannot be practiced at the machine—any one can function there. A few weeks of experience makes a machine operator of the common laborer; and furthermore, SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND THE SPEEDING UP PROCESSES DESTROY INDIVIDUALITY. The loss of individuality destroys all notions of property—cuts the last thread that binds the interests of the worker to the present system.

Craft unionism cannot survive. The development of industry—the perfection of the machine processes—has doomed it. To the machine operative, it is an anachronism—a thing out of date.