Insurgency : or, the economic power of the middle class

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Title Insurgency ; or, the economic power of the middle class /

Author Foster, William Zebulon, 1881-1961.

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INSURGENCY

or

The Economic Power
of the Middle Class

A Discussion between WM. Z.
FOSTER, Member of the I. W. W,
now in Europe, formerly Spokane
Correspondent of "The Working-
man's Paper", of Seattle, and the
Editor, HERMON F. TITUS. Re-
printed from that Journal, issue
of September 10, 1910.

_

THE TRUSTEE PRINTING COMPANY

Price 10 Cents

Box 1908

Seattle, Wash.

/ HARVARD^

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

MAY 131942

EDITORIAL BY H. F. TITUS

(Reprinted from "The Workingman's Paper, issue of September 10,
1910.)

We welcome a letter like this from our old friend and correspondent,
William E. Foster, better known by our readers as William Z. Foster. When
he started for Spokane to represent this paper in the Fight for Free Speech
in that city, it was thought his mail might go to some other man by the
rather common name of William E., so it was agreed that his pen name for
this paper should be William Z., and so by that initial he is known from the
Pacific to the Atlantic.

Foster is now in Europe, this letter bearing a Paris postmark. He wants
to study "Direct Action" in its home, France. He promises to write us
occasionally and give the results of his investigations.

This letter shows once again what an able man Foster is. He is one of
those wage-workers who put to shame the cavils of the so-called Intellectuals
who imagine the working class is incapable of doing its own thinking.

• * • •

The issues which Foster takes with the position of "The Workingman's
Paper" are (1) whether the Middle Class has sufficient "Economic Power"
to resist the Trust Class, and (2), whether the Ballot can be used by the
Working Class for its own emancipation.

First, as to Economic Power. That is an expression frequently employed
without analysis to discover its actual meaning. It is often associated in
thought with that similar expression, Economic Determinism. Both sound
large and Impressive and may be used to overwhelm an unsophisticated
antagonist. It does one good to see a Capitalist adversary appear stupidly
wise at the mention of one of these phrases by a really wise Proletarian.

But the wisest sometimes employ terms which have a profound sig-
nificance, especially If they have won a vogue for themselves, in a loose
and indefinite manner. Therefore it is always healthy for any thinker to
analyze his most commonly used generalizations.

For instance, it is a commonplace for Socialist writers to say the Feudal
Class passed off the stage because Economic Power was captured in the
course of development by the Capitalist Class; or that the Slave-owning Class
of the South was forced to yield to the Capitalist Class of the North because
It possessed inferior Economic Power.

Taking this out of the region of the clouds, what can it mean but the
Power of Bread and Butter? That class has the greatest Economic Power
which holds the purse strings; or, if all have purses, the one which has the

a , "

deepest and fullest purse, has the Power. This assumes that the Purse can
purchase. If money cannot buy the necessities of life, the Purse is powerless.
Economic Power, in that case, rests with that class which commands the
Means of Production, the land and machinery by which necessaries are
produced through labor.

Take a strike, for example. The strikers can last as long as they can
feed. When they can no longer get a meal or provide a roof, they die; their
Economic Power was lost and life with it. The old South yielded and Lee
surrendered, because there was nothing left in the treasury at Richmond,
the soldiers were ragged and starving, no guns and no powder could be
obtained, no cotton could be raised or sold, nobody could pay taxes; in a
word, their Economic Power was exhausted; while yet the North had

abundance.

• • • •

Now, have the -Middle Class sufficient Economic Power left? Can the
Trust Class starve them out? For the Middle Class are certainly on strike
against the Trusts. Listen to their world-famous champion. Roosevelt's
closing words at Minneapolis form a call to battle: "The supreme political
task of our day, the indispensable condition of national efficiency and national
yvelfare, is to drive the Special Corporate Interests out of our public life."

Compare the relative wealth of the three classes. According to the
census of 1900, the last reliable figures, the Trust Class, with some quarter
million members, owned 67 Billion Dollars worth of the wealth of the United
States. The Middle Class, some 8% millions of them, owned 24 Billion
Dollars; while the Wage Class, over 20 Millions of them, had 4 Billions.

The question is, Can 67 Billion Dollars starve out 24 Billions? And
another question, What chance has the Four Billion Dollar Wage Class
against the combined Ninety-one Billion Dollar Capitalist Class?

But that bald statement of the case does not cover all the ground. For
then the Wage Class would be utterly helpless, forever enslaved. And that
is precisely the conclusion which some theorists, who follow their theories
if they lead even into the ditch, have arrived at. The Proletarians have no
Economic Power because they have no wealth. No historic class ever
achieved its freedom without first achieving Economic Power, that is, Wealth.
The modern Wage Class can get no wealth, therefore there is no hope

for it.

• * • •

The reply made by some Proletarians is that the present Proletariat
has real Economic Power, though it has not wealth. Its Power lies in its
control of its own Labor Force, without which no wealth can be produced.
They urge the argument that a United Proletariat, withholding its Labor
Power from the Capitalist Class, would be able to paralyze that class. They
could starve out the world by such "Direct Action."

But they would also starve out themselves meanwhile. The Capitalists,
few in number, would be in possession of all the storehouses filled with
provisions and could stand a long selge, while the workers would be without
anything and millions of them. To this, the Direct Actlonists reply: We
will take and hold the Instruments of Production, the land, the factories, the
railroads, where we are daily employed; we will continue to produce wealth,

.. 4

only now for ourselves, no longer for the Capitalists. We will then hare
instituted the Cooperative Commonwealth. The Capitalists, who thought
to starve us out, will be obliged to come to us at last and solicit us for a

chance to live.

* « » *

That sounds good. But what would the Capitalists be doing while you
are taking and holding? There are millions of them and they will fight for
their property. Don't imagine that Teddy Roosevelt and General Wood and
Admiral Dewey and Post and Heney and Hill and Gaynor and La Folletta
and the rest of their kind, are going to lie down and die like trapped rabbits.
They are not made that way.

And they have the guns, never forget that. They have the guns. And
modern guns are terribly deadly things. One man can hold up a thousand
with one of these modern instruments of warfare. A hundred thousand men
with Machine Guns can dislodge a million workmen, helpless, defenceless,
at their industrial machines, in their factories which they are taking and
holding.

The Economic Power of simple, unassisted, unarmed Labor Force, even
if it could be united in a far greater degree than would ever be practicable,
would be as unavailing against that vast development of power, called the
Government, as hand labor has proved unavailing in its conflict with machine
labor. The mere possession of Labor Power is obviously not the possession
of Economic Power. It cannot produce the necessaries of life while excluded

from the Means of Production.

* * * •

But is it true, on the other hand, that the possession of mere wealth,
including the Means of Production, is the sure possession of Economic Power?
Suppose Morgan held the entire wealth of America. Could he starve out all
the rest of us? Ownership must be accompanied with power to maintain
ownership. Could one man maintain possession against all the rest of man-
kind and compel them to starve because he would not admit them to the
sources of life? If, then, one man would fail through weakness, how many
men would be essential, with all the power of Government and Guns, to
dispossess the rest of men and hold them dispossessed?

Could, for instance, the Trust Class, with its present numerical strength,
of, say, 250,000, forbid all the rest of the nation to touch the Means of
Production which belong to that Class? They have the Economic Power, as
defined above, but have they the physical power? Can 250,000 subdue 30,-
000,000? Can such a handful, even with the Gun Government, coerce a hun-
dred times their number and starve them into submission?

Granting that a whole, nation could hardly be held up by a mere frac-
tion of its number, like the Trust Class in America, how about such a large
proportion as the Middle Class of some Ten Millions? Could they hold up
the rest and compel them to deliver the goods?

That is the intensely practical question which faces the American nation
today. Theodore Roosevelt is engaged in no child's play. He is in dead
earnest to dethrone the "Predatory Interests," the Trusts, from their domi-

5

nation of the State. The Middle Class Rebellion has found a leader, as
predicted in our editorial of April 10th, reprinted on our inside pages. He
openly proposes Government Control of the Trusts, which can have no
practical realization short of Government Ownership, as he plainly hints.
This means the Railroads first, and then the Electric Trust and the Oil
Trust and the Meat Trust and the Steel Trust, would be bought with Gov-
ernment bonds and hereafter conducted by the Government in such manner
as to allow the small Business Man and the Farmer to live untroubled by
high prices, high rates and high taxes; while the Wage Man would continue
to work for wages as at present, provide a Surplus as at present and pay
the interest on the bonds held by the Rockefellers, the Morgans and the
Carnegies.

Can the Middle Class accomplish this program? Have they sufficient
power, sufficient Economic Power, if you like?

The real question is, Can this Middle Class of Ten Millions, with its
wealth of Twenty-four Billions, defeat the Trust Class of Two Hundred and
Fifty Thousand with its wealth of Sixty-seven Billions, including most of
the Means of Production?

(The "Wage Class is not yet politically organized, and therefore is a
negligible quantity in formulating a reply to this question. For a while, at
any rate, it will divide its votes between the Trust Class Party, promising
Prosperity and good wages, and the Middle Class, promising steady work
on Government Jobs. Gradually, we hope and believe, the Proletariat will
perceive that neither Big Business nor Small Business, Trust Class nor
Middle Class, has any intention to abolish wages and unpaid labor and the
consequent poverty of the Proletarian, and will proceed to fight its own
battle for Its own emancipation.)

But let us essay a reply to the main question as to the ability of the
Middle Class, under Roosevelt's leadership, to force the Corporations out of
the control of the Government.

And here we come to Foster's second difficulty, the Ballot. For it is by
means of the Ballot, that the Middle Class Rebellion expects to succeed in
displacing the Trust. A number of Wage Workers, including quite a section
of the I. W. W., agree with Foster, when he says, "The Ballot is on the
Bum," meaning that nothing can be accomplished by means of the Ballot,
which is regarded by them as a Capitalist institution and a snare and a
delusion.

Their contention is, that Economic Power Is the only thing that counts.
So, if the Middle Class wins at the Ballot Box, it will be defeated in the
legislature Itself and on the Judge's Bench and in the Executive's Chair,
by the corrupting power of money in the hands of the Trusts; and they point
to the universal prevalence of Graft as proof. They would not trust their
own representatives, if elected, to prove Inaccessible to the temptations of
intrigue and bribery. In a word, they abjure Politics as a Device of the
Enemy.

It is a fad among these workers to greet the mention of political action
with Homeric Laughter and to consign the victim of political notions for
the Working Class to the limbo of the totally ignorant and depraved. Even

6

to discuss the matter, as we are doing now, will seem to these men as little
less than Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Their horror of political action
it rery like the anarchist's horror of "The State;" they would not touch

it to save their lives.

• • * *

But nothing, not even the Law of Gravitation, is beyond discussion. Nor
should the intolerance of its adherents lead us to refuse to consider any
proposal which concerns the Workingclass.

Let us see. The Middle Class proposes to down the Trust Class by
means of the Ballot, notwithstanding the alleged superior Economic Power
of the Trusts. Are they foredoomed to failure?

Let us say at the outset that all this cheap ridicule of the Ballot as "a
piece of white paper" cannot pass with the thoughtful. You might as well
ridicule all voting, as the anarchists do — in theory; that is, Never try in any
manner to ascertain the will of the majority.

It is just as stupid to take a vote in an assembly by show of hands, or
by ayes and noes, as it is to do it by means of the ballot.

The "Piece of Paper" is nothing in itself, but as indicating the will and
opinion of a man or woman, a unit in a given society, whose decision is to
be ascertained, it is a very potent fact.

It is no modern invention. It is as old as the ancient Commune. It
existed long before Capitalism, Feudalism or Slavery was known on the
earth. You might as well decry the wearing of Cotton Clothes as a device
of Capital, or the use of Petroleum or the Steamboat or the study of Chemis-
try. Because Capitalists employ Robert's Rules of Order does not prove
that they are not good rules for any assembly.

A fact is a fact, and the Ballot is a very prominent fact in the modern
economy. By means of the Ballot this week, the Trust Senator Burrows of
Michigan has been retired from the U. S. Senate, and La Follette has been
re-nominated in Wisconsin. "Insurgent" victories are recorded all over the
country— by means of the Ballot.

Why this tremendous struggle between the Standpatters and Insurgents
now going on in every state, if the Ballot is not a powerful factor in de-
ciding events? It seems absurd to have to prove so obvious an assertion

as that the Ballot is a tremendous fact.

* * * *

The Ballot certainly changes the Government. By means of it the Middle
Class can achieve power. It is altogether likely they will win the elections
this fall.

But will Government make up for lack of Economic Power? Will not
the superior wealth of- the Trust Class enable them to defeat the Govern-
ment in the hands of the Middle Class? Just as the Capitalist Class might
defeat the Wage Class, even after its victory at the polls?

We admit we cannot understand how it will be possible for a quarter
of a million people, though they may be in possession of 67 Billion Dollars
of Property, to prevent ten million people who have won the powers of
Government, from passing and enforcing any legislation they please. The
only way we can see for the Trust Class to maintain itself under those condi-
tions, would be to fight, to engage in actual war in defence of their prop-

7

erty. In which event, they would stand no show against the Ten Million
who were in possession of the mighty machine of repression known as the

Government.

• • • •

For the Government, the State, the thing which is changed by means
of the Ballot at Elections, is an almost superhuman engine of power. For
generations it has been trained in the exercise of power. It is a vast social
machine for applying coercion. It is itself an Economic Power, a physical
power which, in the hands of a large minority, like the ten million of the
Middle Class, might be able to coerce and conquer the twenty million Pro-
letarians. By means of the Ballot, the Middle Class can capture this Economic
Power, the Instrument of Physical Control, the Means of Producing Death,
the historically developed Machine of Government, and thereby prolong Its
own existence as a Capitalist Class. Then it will be far more likely to
defer the Emancipation of the Wage Class indefinitely than the numerically

and physically weak Trust Class.

* « » »

Therefore we regard the Middle Class Rebellion as a thing to be corn-
batted unremittingly by the Wage Class. We can see no possible way in
which the Proletarian can be benefitted by the victory of Roosevelt and
Pinchot. It is better that Taft and Hill and Morgan and Guggenheim should
carry on their Trust Organization to the limit, wiping out the Middle Class
completely. Meanwhile, the Wage Class is just as well off, certainly, during
the progress of the Battle between Big Capital and Little Capital, under the
management of Big Capital as it would be under Little Capital.

Any kind of Capital is the Foe of Labor. Any kind of Capital, big or
little, is the robber of Wage Labor. It is the very nature of Capital to live
oft the Surplus of Labor's product over its subsistence wage. Abolish that
Surplus, abolish the Law of Wages, and you abolish Capital. Nothing short
et that will emancipate Wage Labor. And we have no consideration what-
soever for any other class in society but the Wage Class. Their battle Is the
Battle for Freedom, for Democracy, for Progress, for a New Race. Prole-
tarianism is the only Nationalism worth fighting for.

W. Z. FOSTER'S LETTER

On Board North German-Lloyd Steam-
er Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm, bound
for Cherbourg, France.

Aug. 6, 1910.
Mr. E. B. Ault.

Dear Friend and Fellow Worker: —
For the past few months I have been
knocking around so much that I have
had very little time for reading, and
many of the articles in my old friend,
"The Socialist," have escaped my
notice. In New York, however, I was
handed a late issue and during a few
spare moments I read the article en-
titled "The Middle Class Rebellion."
I judge from the style of it that Dr.
Titus is the author.

* • •

The American political situation
has been summed up from every po-
litical angle and prejudice, but of all
of these efforts that I have seen I
believe "The Middle Class Rebellion"
Is by far the best, and, barring a few
conclusions as to the part to be played
by tho workers and the possible out-
come of the fight I agree with it.
In it the leading political figures of the
day, such as Roosevelt, Taft, Ballin-
ger, Plnchot, etc., are properly pigeon-
holed in the economic classes they
represent, and the class nature of the
•truggle now going on is clearly ex-
posed.

• • *

The current explanations that the
tnuck raking graift exposures, eta,
now filling our popular magazines,
are due to a moral wave that is

sweeping over the country, or to the
re-awakening of the "inherent" sense
of justice of the American people
which has hibernated for the past two
decades, are absurd, and unworthy of
the serious consideration of any
student of sociology. As. Dr. Ttius
says these phenomena are the result
of "the revolt of Little Business
against Big Business."

In the I. W. W. it is customary for
writers and speakers to almost com-
pletely Ignore the Middle Class. Any
reference made to it is usually as a
slur at its weakness and backward-
ness. No attempt is made to point
out that present society is a three
class society, with two economically
Inferior classes — Working Class and
Middle Class — desperately resisting
the inroads of the Master or Capi-
talist Class. With a sublime con-
tempt for the great, reactionary, Mid-
dle Class we consider that It is al-
ready eliminated as an important fac-
tor in the struggle for economic pow-
er. All political activity we attribute
to the Capitalist Class; the violent
political quarrels, of late agitating the
country, are but so many subterfuges
and schemes to divide and bewilder
the only other class worth mention-
ing — the Working Class. Roosevelt,
Taft, Aldrich, Cannon, Pinchot, etc.,
are just so many capitalist politicians.
A favorite expression is, "There are
but two 'nations' — the robber and the
robbed."
9

This position is manifestly wrong,
and misleading, as the Middle Class
is yet to be reckoned with, and all
indications point to a great struggle
between it and the Capitalist Class
proper for mastery. This warfare,
now just getting well under way, con-
tains a large element of danger to the
American labor movement, in that the
Middle Class, although possessing no
interests in common with the "Work-
ing Class, represents all the historic
ideals the raw and undeveloped Work-
ing Class have been bred to consider
as their own.

The American ideal has been to
evolve to affluence through the medi-
um of the Middle Class by first be-
coming a small farmer, storekeeper
or manufacturer, etc. Now, when the
Middle Class, figuratively the second
rung on the ladder to success, finds
itself being strangled by the Capitalist
Class it makes a desperate appeal for
aid to the Working Class, which readi-
ly responds, naturally supposing it is
interested in the "square deal," "anti-
rebate," "conservation," etc., policies
of the Middle Class, as they repre-
sent the last remnant of the historic
American slogan of "Equal opportuni-
ty for all." As proof that this aid is
being extended to the Middle Class
the late victories of the insurgents
may be cited, to say nothing of the
hopelessly Middle Class character of
the so-called "Socialist" party.
• * *

The sooner this struggle is over
the better it will be for the Working
Class, as the economic subjugation
of the Middle Class means the de-
struction of their individualist ideals
— with which the Working Class is
now obsessed, and the development of
the new Working Class Collectivist
ideals, without which the labor move-
ment is almost useless. So long as a

worker believes that by "saving up"
for a few years he can become the
owner of a lucrative business he is
absolutely unfit to be organized; but
when that hope is removed and he
understands that he can better his
condition only by acting in concert
with his fellow workers, then the days
of Capitalism are numbered.
» * *

Dr. Titus points out the hastiness
of considering as a cancelled econo-
mic factor such a good fighting class
as the American Middle Class has
proved itself to be, and suggests the
possibility that under the leadership
of the fire eating Roosevelt and
Pinchot, it may severely check the
growth of the monopolies, and "in-
definitely postpone" the overthrow of
capitalism. So • strong does he word
this possibility that one would be led
to believe that he expects events to
take such a course. This would mean
government ownership of irallroads,
telegraphs, coal mines, express com-
panies and other monopolies that par-
ticularly harass the Middle Class.

Does modern American history jus-
tify any such faith in the power of
the Middle Class, to, in any way, even
check the concentration of capital?
Does it not, on the other hand, clearly
prove that the Middle Class is doom-
ed, that its old means for the control
of industry are obsolete, and that it
is incapable of developing any new
ones, that in spite of its vast numeri-
cal strength and seeming virility, its
intellectual following and its posses-
sion of the historic American ideals —
an invaluable asset to a ruling class —
it is about to be obliterated?
* * *

This "Middle Class Rebellion,"— tho
rendered acute by the Pinchot-Bal-
linger controversy and the rebuke
administered to Cannon recently — has
10

been going on with increasing vigor
for the past ten years. We have seen
the trusts increase their power con-
tinually in spite of all opposition until
today they are almost all powerful. It
is folly to say the Middle Class hasn't
disputed this advance; but it has al-
ways been defeated. Several times
running victories have been won but
only for a time, the Capitalist Class
has always emerged the victor.

The Northern Securities case is a
good example. Here was a trust that
was legally busted and yet today the
merger is in practical effect by the
simple expedient of keeping three sets
of hooks instead of one. The Standard
Oil Co. $29,000,000 fine was another
great victory for the Common People.
At the time of the imposition of the
fine any newsboy could have told us
that it would never be paid. Is there
any sane person who believes the
rebate and graft prosecutions have
decreased the practices? The rail-
road officials and legislators have
simply become more expert in cover-
ing up their trails.

* • *

Once in a while a trust gets so
"bad" that the "people" decide to buy
it— for instance the Chicago City Rail-
ways — but somehow the capitalists
refuse to sell. Instead of selling
public utilities to the state or munici-
palities the tendency is to buy up
what few gas works, water-works, etc.,
the municipalities now own. The
Phila. Gas Works was sold to the U.
6. I. Co. in spite of the express deci-
sion at the previous election that it
should not be sold. Even the public
ownership of the post office is now
threatened.

* » »

The cause for the uniform lack of
success on the part of the Middle Class
through its government is clearly be- 1

11

cause it is lacking in economic power,
tho it has time and again demonstrated
the fact that it has an abundance of
the obsolete "political power." There
is one kind of power recognized in the
world today, and that is the ability
to control industry. This is an econo-
mic power. This power is shared by
the capitalists and the workers al-
most entirely, the former thru their
capital, the latter thru the monopoly of
their labor power. In these later days
armaments are more and more depend-
ent upon capital owing to the increased
expenditure necessary for their main-
tenance and the success of a war de-
pending upon the goodwill of the cap-
italists who loan the necessary funds.
• • *

The Middle Class although posses-
sing a vast amount of wealth is un-
able to use it effectively owing: to its
being divided among so many individ-
uals. As for controlling industry by
its labor power, such a thing is ab-
surd, as they are not in a position to
do so.

It can't command the armed forces
of the nation, as that too has paid
homage to the all conquering capital.
The Middle Class thus stands stripped
of all economic power.

Until quite recently the small capi-
talists, or Middle Class, controlled in-
dustry through their "democratic" gov-
ernment, which came into existence
with them. Being economic equals
and very numerous their method of
procedure was to ascertain the senti-
ment of the majority by an election,
and then to coerce the minority into
obedience. No small set of the capi-
talists at that time could pit their
capital, or economic strength against
the rest, and as a consequence, the
wish of the majority was law, and no
mercy was shown the violator.

Not being exposed to so many cor-

rupting influences the courts and legis-
latures could be depended upon to
serve the class that elected or ap-
pointed them and the will of the ma-
jority was respected. Then was the
heyday of "government" and most of
the brilliant men of the period could
be found in the halls of Congress.

• • •

But times have changed; capital
has combined, the trusts have arisen,
and the owners, though few in num-
bers are able to easily thwart the
wishes of the small capitalists by a
liberal use of their money. Their cap-
ital is in such shape that they can
make it count in a fight — witness how
easily they suppress Trade Unions
that were the terror of the small cap-
italists.

No longer do they obey the wishes
of the majority. As Lawson says, "They
buy legislators like fish in the mar-
ket." They have corrupted the courts,
the very soul of Middle Class govern-
ment, until they are a byword even to
the Middle Class. The government
has become a joke and is composed
of a lot of nobodies. The only real
use the modern capitalist class has
for it is to use it to exploit the "com-
mon people" of their rapidly dwind-
ling possessions, such as franchises,
water power, coal lands, etc.

• • *

Being few in numrers this new Cap-
italist Class needs no vast executive
committee or "government" such as
the Middle Class does, but transacts
its business privately, behind closed
doors. If the Beef Trust wishes to
arrange for railroad rates, a meeting
In Morgan's private office settles the
matter satisfactorily. Why allow a
lot of Kansas farmers to interfere
thru their busybody "government?"
It is a very significant fact that when
a kick is made about unfair rates it

is always by the Middle Class and to
its government. The Trusts settle
their disputes privately, except in
rare cases, when they make open eco-
nomic war upon each other. They
treat the laws of the Middle Class gov-
ernment with contempt whenever it
suits their convenience.

• • •

The Baseball syndicate is in exist-
ence In flagrant violation of many of
the most fundamental laws upon the
statute books.

This syndicate bas absolutely ban-
ished business competition from base-
ball and each club is "in its narrow
cell forever laid." It forces contract
labor upon Its employees and woe un-
to the ball player who is hardy enough
to violate his contract He is openly
blacklisted by every club in the coun-
try.

This syndicate has a high court of
three men who try owners, managers,
and players alike, dealing out severe
punishments when they deem it neces-
sary. The magnates argue exped-
iency, they rightly argue that shop-
keepers should not be allowed to in-
terfere with baseball. The only power
they will ever recognize will be the
organized labor power of the ball
players, or a rival aggregation of cap-
ital. Many similar instances can be
given of this evidence of each indus-
try transacting Its business regardless
of the howls of the smaller fry.
» • •

The modern Capitalist Class abso-
lutely refuses to obey any "law" detri-
mental to its interest that Is not en-
forced by economic power. The so-
called labor laws, such as "8 hour
laws," "child labor laws," etc., are
treated the same as are the "pure and
simple" Middle Class measures, as
it realizes they have nothing behind

12

them but the old Middle Class count-
ing of noses, or voting.

* * *

There are many ways of side-track-
ing the wishes of the "common peo-
ple," but they are all based on capi-
tal. Courts and legislatures have al-
ways proved purchasable and investi-
gating committees are easily disposed
of. Even in the sacred ranks of the
ultra holy insurgents the power of
capital is evident. Garfield, several
years ago, reported that the Beef
Trust, one of the "very bad" ones
paid but 2 per cent interest on the
money invested and the Roosevelt-
Morton rebate scandal stunk to the
high heavens.

* * •

This disregard and contempt for
"majority" made law, tho a pro-
nounced characteristic of the revolu-
tionary Capitalist Class is not pecu-
liar to it alone. The' revolutionary
Working Class also ignores obnox-
ious "majority" made laws wherever
it has the power to do so. The
workers have organized in restraint
of trade in spite of Middle Class
conspiracy laws until now they have
the "legal" right to organize. Need-
less to say this "legal" right is worth
nothing if the Capitalist Class has the
economic power to forbid it. Many of
the labor unions of Europe are in
flagrant violation of the "law." Even
our own Spokane fight may serve to
"adorn a moral or point a tale" as
that was successfully carried on in
open violation of "law."

In the three cornered fight now go-
ing on in society, the two revolution-
ary classes have thrown aside the old
Middle Class government — owing to
a lack of organization, the Working
Class hasn't repudiated it to the ex-

,13

tent that the Capitalist Class has— and
settle their quarrels between them-
selves; and the reactionary class, the
Middle Class, buffeted from pillar to
post, and gradually being squeezed to
death between the upper and the
nether millstone, can only defend
itself with its old obsolete weapon-
Government, which its real enemy, the
Capitalist Class, ignores.

The Middle Class can't understand
this phenomenon of a few men
handling its government and proposes
to cleanse the temple of the money
changers by electing "good" and "hon-
est" men into office, who will make
their good "ship of state" answer the
helm as she used to. In order to se-
cure as many of these virtuous para-
gons who are exempt from the first
law of nature, the Working Class is
also to be lined up and such a count-
ing of noses made as never occurred
before.

• * *

Herein lies the chief fault of Dr.
Titus' article. He seems to think such
a reactionary program can be effective
in checking economic development.

The key to the situation does not
lie with the workers. It is not a
working class fight and the workers
will never take any very serious part
in it. They will probably use the Mid-
dle Class weapon — the weak and in-
effective ballot— in this Middle Class
fight but it is extremely unlikely that
they will ever fight another's battles
with real Working Class weapons that
are revolutionary such as the strike,
sabotage, etc. Far '.from being an
important factor they will be but an
imposing array of dead timber and the
Capitalist Class will ignore even the
greatly increased number of opposing
noses and buy up the legislators and
judges of this unholy alliance the same

as before, tho perhaps at a slightly
higher price.

The only hope the Middle Class has
is to defeat the Capitalist Class with
capital, and if this could be done,
simply the personel of the Capitalist
Class would be changed and there
would be a still greater concentration
of capital.

* * *

The danger of this fight to the
workers is that they are certainly
going to experiment with the ballot
to the neglect of their revolutionary
economic organizations. These latter,
however, can never die, tho their im-
mediate development may be serious-
ly interfered with, because while the
workers are flirting with the seduc-
tive and barren ballot, they will be
forced to retain some sort of bread
and butter organization, or accept a
greatly lowered standard of living.

• • •

When the ineffectiveness of the bal-
lot has finally been demonstrated so
clearly that even the workers can
see it, then they will repudiate it
entirely, and adopt Working Class
tactics, even as the tendency seems to
be in the vanguard of the labor move-
ment of Europe. This will be the
death blow to the already sadly
weakened Middle Class and the open-

ing of the real "direct action" fight
between the Capitalist Class and the
Working Class. For the first time in
capitalist history the issue will be
clear and then the Revolution will be
at hand.

Thus it will be seen that the Mid-
dle Class can look for no real- aid from
the Working Class. Tho the latter
will undoubtedly vote as the former
directs, the combined vote will be just
as easily ignored as the majority vote
of today. The Working Class will
have its direct action tactics to turn
to after learning this lesson, but the
Middle Class must go down and out
owing to inability to develop effective
weapons of offense and defense.
* • •

Harry, I think you fellows should
get next to the ballot — its on the bum
entirely. I don't presume to know a
great deal about direct action but at
present writing, I am on my way to
a country where I should learn a little
namely, France.

But I have made this letter so long
that I have left no room for news. I'll
write you occasionally, however, and
give you what little news there is
when I get settled.

Yours for the Working Class,
Per the I. W. W.,

WM. "Z." FOSTER.

14

The Workingman's
Paper

For ten years this paper, for nine years under the title "The So-
cialist," has been holding aloft the banner of Proletarlanism— calling
upon the Proletarians to realize their power and use it in their own
interests. It has been a journal of free discussion, and every matter
of interest to the working class has had thorough consideration from a
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"The Workingman's Paper" has had a hard struggle to maintain its
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no consideration for its subscription list has ever influenced its judg-
ments, it is an absolutely free and untrammeled paper, owing allegiance
to no party or sect and devoted to the interests of the whole working
class.

The editor, Dr. Hermon F. Titus, is a recognized Marxian scholar,
and has made what many believe to be the first permanent contribution
to Socialist literature in this country in his editorials on the "Significance
of Roosevelt."

"The Workingman's Paper" has a large staff of contributors who are
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Other Publications

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