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war of the classes-第20部分

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〃It organizes industry on an enormous; labor…saving scale; and

abolishes childish; wasteful competition。〃  It is a gigantic object

lesson; and it preaches his political economy far more potently than

he can preach it。  He points to the trust; laughing scornfully in

the face of the orthodox economists。  〃You told me this thing could

not be;〃 {12} he thunders。  〃Behold; the thing is!〃



He sees competition in the realm of production passing away。  When

the captains of industry have thoroughly organized production; and

got everything running smoothly; it will be very easy for him to

eliminate the profits by stepping in and having the thing run for

himself。  And the captain of industry; if he be good; may be given

the privilege of continuing the management on a fair salary。  The

sixty millions of dividends which the Standard Oil Company annually

declares will be distributed among the workers。  The same with the

great United States Steel Corporation。  The president of that

corporation knows his business。  Very good。  Let him become

Secretary of the Department of Iron and Steel of the United States。

But; since the chief executive of a nation of seventy…odd millions

works for 50;000 a year; the Secretary of the Department of Iron

and Steel must expect to have his salary cut accordingly。  And not

only will the workers take to themselves the profits of national and

municipal monopolies; but also the immense revenues which the

dominant classes today draw from rents; and mines; and factories;

and all manner of enterprises。





All this would seem very like a dream; even to the worker; if it

were not for the fact that like things have been done before。  He

points triumphantly to the aristocrat of the eighteenth century; who

fought; legislated; governed; and dominated society; but who was

shorn of power and displaced by the rising bourgeoisie。  Ay; the

thing was done; he holds。  And it shall be done again; but this time

it is the proletariat who does the shearing。  Sociology has taught

him that m…i…g…h…t spells 〃right。〃  Every society has been ruled by

classes; and the classes have ruled by sheer strength; and have been

overthrown by sheer strength。  The bourgeoisie; because it was the

stronger; dragged down the nobility of the sword; and the

proletariat; because it is the strongest of all; can and will drag

down the bourgeoisie。



And in that day; for better or worse; the common man becomes the

masterfor better; he believes。  It is his intention to make the

sum of human happiness far greater。  No man shall work for a bare

living wage; which is degradation。  Every man shall have work to do;

and shall be paid exceedingly well for doing it。  There shall be no

slum classes; no beggars。  Nor shall there be hundreds of thousands

of men and women condemned; for economic reasons; to lives of

celibacy or sexual infertility。  Every man shall be able to marry;

to live in healthy; comfortable quarters; and to have all he wants

to eat as many times a day as he wishes。  There shall no longer be a

life…and…death struggle for food and shelter。  The old heartless law

of development shall be annulled。



All of which is very good and very fine。  And when these things have

come to pass; what then?  Of old; by virtue of their weakness and

inefficiency in the struggle for food and shelter; the race was

purged of its weak and inefficient members。  But this will no longer

obtain。  Under the new order the weak and the progeny of the weak

will have a chance for survival equal to that of the strong and the

progeny of the strong。  This being so; the premium upon strength

will have been withdrawn; and on the face of it the average strength

of each generation; instead of continuing to rise; will begin to

decline。



When the common man's day shall have arrived; the new social

institutions of that day will prevent the weeding out of weakness

and inefficiency。  All; the weak and the strong; will have an equal

chance for procreation。  And the progeny of all; of the weak as well

as the strong; will have an equal chance for survival。  This being

so; and if no new effective law of development be put into

operation; then progress must cease。  And not only progress; for

deterioration would at once set in。  It is a pregnant problem。  What

will be the nature of this new and most necessary law of

development?  Can the common man pause long enough from his

undermining labors to answer?  Since he is bent upon dragging down

the bourgeoisie and reconstructing society; can he so reconstruct

that a premium; in some unguessed way or other; will still be laid

upon the strong and efficient so that the human type will continue

to develop?  Can the common man; or the uncommon men who are allied

with him; devise such a law?  Or have they already devised one?  And

if so; what is it?







HOW I BECAME A SOCIALIST







It is quite fair to say that I became a Socialist in a fashion

somewhat similar to the way in which the Teutonic pagans became

Christiansit was hammered into me。  Not only was I not looking for

Socialism at the time of my conversion; but I was fighting it。  I

was very young and callow; did not know much of anything; and though

I had never even heard of a school called 〃Individualism;〃 I sang

the paean of the strong with all my heart。



This was because I was strong myself。  By strong I mean that I had

good health and hard muscles; both of which possessions are easily

accounted for。  I had lived my childhood on California ranches; my

boyhood hustling newspapers on the streets of a healthy Western

city; and my youth on the ozone…laden waters of San Francisco Bay

and the Pacific Ocean。  I loved life in the open; and I toiled in

the open; at the hardest kinds of work。  Learning no trade; but

drifting along from job to job; I looked on the world and called it

good; every bit of it。  Let me repeat; this optimism was because I

was healthy and strong; bothered with neither aches nor weaknesses;

never turned down by the boss because I did not look fit; able

always to get a job at shovelling coal; sailorizing; or manual labor

of some sort。



And because of all this; exulting in my young life; able to hold my

own at work or fight; I was a rampant individualist。  It was very

natural。  I was a winner。  Wherefore I called the game; as I saw it

played; or thought I saw it played; a very proper game for MEN。  To

be a MAN was to write man in large capitals on my heart。  To

adventure like a man; and fight like a man; and do a man's work

(even for a boy's pay)these were things that reached right in and

gripped hold of me as no other thing could。  And I looked ahead into

long vistas of a hazy and interminable future; into which; playing

what I conceived to be MAN'S game; I should continue to travel with

unfailing health; without accidents; and with muscles ever vigorous。

As I say; this future was interminable。  I could see myself only

raging through life without end like one of Nietzsche's BLOND…

BEASTS; lustfully roving and conquering by sheer superiority and

strength。



As for the unfortunates; the sick; and ailing; and old; and maimed;

I must confess I hardly thought of them at all; save that I vaguely

felt that they; barring accidents; could be as good as I if they

wanted to real hard; and could work just as well。  Accidents?  Well;

they represented FATE; also spelled out in capitals; and there was

no getting around FATE。  Napoleon had had an accident at Waterloo;

but that did not dampen my desire to be another and later Napoleon。

Further; the optimism bred of a stomach which could digest scrap

iron and a body which flourished on hardships did not permit me to

consider accidents as even remotely related to my glorious

personality。



I hope I have made it clear that I was proud to be one of Nature's

strong…armed noblemen。  The dignity of labor was to me the most

impressive thing in the world。  Without having read Carlyle; or

Kipling; I formulated a gospel of work which put theirs in the

shade。  Work was everything。  It was sanctification and salvation。

The pride I took in a hard day's work well done would be

inconceivable to you。  It is almost inconceivable to me as I look

back upon it。  I was as faithful a wage slave as ever capitalist

exploited。  To shirk or malinger on the man who paid me my wages was

a sin; first; against myself; and second; against him。  I considered

it a crime second only to treason and just about as bad。



In short; my joyous individualism was dominated by the orthodox

bourgeois ethics。  I read the bourgeois papers; listened to the

bourgeois preachers; and shouted at the sonorous platitudes of the

bourgeois politicians。  And I doubt not; if other events had not

changed my career; that I should have evolved into a professional

strike…breaker; (one of President Eliot's American heroes); and had

my head and my earning power irrevocably smashed by a club in the

hands of some militant trades…unionist。



Just about this time; returning from a seven months' voyage before

the mast; and just turned eighteen; I took it into my head to go

tramping。  On rods and blind baggages I fought my way from the open

West where men bucked big and the job hunted the man; to the

congested labor centres of the East; where men were small potatoes

and hunted the job for all they were worth。  And on this new BLOND…

BEAST adventure I found myself looking upon life from a new and

totally different angle。  I had dropped down from the proletariat

into what sociologists love to call the 〃submerged tenth;〃 and I was

startled to discover the way in which that submerged tenth was

recruited。



I found there all sorts of men; many of whom had once been as good

as myself and just as BLOND…BEAST; sailor…men; soldier…men; labor…

men; all wrenched and distorted and twisted out of shape by toil and

hardship and accident; and cast 
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