CONTENTdm
Pritchard, W.A.
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.-.-.' :y.!vSj<_st« S£^7m Western Cla The Official Organ of THE SOCIALIST PARTYloFiCANADA No. 796] Vancouver, B. C., September, 1917 [Month 5c to j|he workers of Canada We who address you have a policy distinct and different from that of any other party engaged in this election ||| As workjngmen to workingmen we wish to point out certain facts with regard to conditions as they exist today. Society as at present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of life—the land, mills, mines, Railroads, etc.—by the capitalist class, in consequence of which the workers, by whose labor wealth alone is produced, are enslaved. There is, therefore, an antagonism of interests between those who pos-. sess but do not produce, and those who produce and do not possess. This antagonism can be abolished only through the emancipation of the working class from the domination of the master class, by transforming the property of the master class into productive forces controlled and administered by the whole of society for the benefit of all. The machinery of the State, including the armed forces—army, - navy, police, judiciary, etc.—exists only to conserve'the interest of the master class. The worker^, therefore, must organize on class conscious lines for the purpose of capturing the powers of government, *so that these forces may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation. Since all political parties are the expression of certain class interests, and as the interests of the workers is opposed to the interests of all sec tions of the master Class, the party whose object is working class emancipation must be hostile to every other party. The Socialist Party of Canada, therefore, enters this election campaign for the purpose of giving expression to the war it must wage against all other political parties, whether alleged LABOR or avowedly CAPITALIST. That was the position put forward by the party three years ago. And that position has been proven correct by every military and diploma- tie manoeuvre since that time. However, the master class of this country, drunk with power, and evidently staking its chance on the workers mental density, is apparently attempting to fasten upon our necks the yoke of military servitude. As to the need of this, from the masters standpoint, we need say no more, outside of drawing your attention to recent manifesto upon the matter. We are opposed to Conscription, not because Canada has not been allowed to arrange her own foreign policy (such a thing is inconceivable when we realise from what quarter she is controlled) nor yet because we imagine that a free (sic) people, fighting a fight for freedom should be allowed to voluntariy offer themselves; but because we object to being scientifically slaughtered in a fight in which working class interests are not involved. That is a position which is unassailable, and from that position we refuse to recede. Six hundred years ago the means for producing wealth were very crude, yet a man. could produce enough to keep his family ano\ himself for a whole year bylfltwelve week's labor. What vast strides have since been made in the means of producing wealth, and how many times has the fertility of our toil been multiplied. Yet men like Campbell Banner- man and Lloyd George confessed some years ago that about 30% of the population of Britain lived in the grip of perpetual poverty. That is a wonderful state of affairs in an Empire about whose untold wealth we are now urged to wax so enthusiastic. And what has been the effect of the wonderful increase in the productivity of human labor. Has it raised those who work above that poverty line. It has not, and if you are only honest with yourself you know we speak the truth. The workers are compelled to become the WAGE-SLAVES of those who own the mines, mills, railroads, and other means of production. If the workers in the Middle Ages produced more than they required, in their own fields, they could store it against a rainy day leave it to rot in the fields, or take a layoff and produce less.m;Today, however, the wealth produced by the working class in excess of what is essential to its own maintenance, belongs to the master class. It accumulates until the world market becomes glutted and the warehouses are full, throws the workers out of jobs because there cannot be found any to buy the product of their toil and thus relieve the situation. Not only so I it brings a problem to the master THE WESTERN OLARION class of finding an outlet for their surplus goods and so the workers, from whom it has been extracted, are called upon to display their loyalty by shouldering a rifle for the purpose of shooting their fellow workers of other lands in order that a market may be located wherein this stolen wealth may be sold. We, therefore, call upon the workers, of this Province to study the conditions of their own miserable existence, and realize the cause for tbe same. To those who desire to register a protest against this system of exploitation, and go on record as being opposed to the continuation of wage- slavery, we say: Support at the polls, in the forthcoming election, the nominees of the Socialist Party of Canada. Dominion Executive Committee THE JOB. (Continued from last issue).- GHE first thing necessary to an understanding of the economic causes of unemployment is a clear conception of what "a job" really is. | Now a job, to the average worker, apears as nothing more than work which is don for an employer in exchange for a certain sum of money—wages. Now as a matter ol: fact, work, in its real sense, is the result of th *ee i'aetors: Nature, in the shape o? r.i.atrial i:urnishe„ ty her gratis, Man, and the Tools which he interposes betweeu himself and nature. The first, Nature, man finds all around him, he p even, part of nature Jhimself, whilst the topis he uses are the result of previous work on his part—work 'which has changed the form of some material he has found in nature, to one suitable to meet a need of his. A discussion of the Labor process is out of place here, but it must not be forgotten that what the workers receive as a "reward" for working, or who owns the tools he uses, does not affect that process at all except, perhaps, in a very roundabout way; so that "Work" and a"Job" are by no means the same thing. A job, above all things, implies an employee, and an employee must have an employer. An employer is cne who pays wages—who buys labor power^M^In order to use labor- power the employer must own two other things—Raw Material and Machinery of Production. In other Avords, before the employer can use labor-power he must have bought, on the open market of course, the means of production, the building that is to house his machinery, the machinery itself, and the raw mater-, ial he is to set his laborers to work upon. All these things take the form, in Capitalist Society, of commodities—things useful to man -by their nature, the products of past . labor which have been produced for the express purpose of sale. That with which the employer buys these things, gold, is a commodity too; in the form of money it becomes the universal equivalent, in which is reflected the value of all others. The buyer of machinery, etc., has done no more than exchange that which he has, money, for that which he has not, machinery, etc. An exchange implies equality of the things exchanged. But wh„t can possibly be equal in money (gold) and machinery. Obviously not their physical characteristics, clears ly not their use—otherwise why exchange them? There is only one thing common to all commodities, Labor. Labor can only be measured by the clock, by time. The gold and the machinery, exchanged as they are on the open market on the basis of equality, can only be exchanged by taking this common quality— Labor—as the determining factor of Value, and as labor is measured by time it is clear that Lg,bor-time must form the basis of exchange. The Exchange Value, or the relation between one community and another, is, however, not based upon the amount of labor actually embodied in them but upon the amount of lab or socially necessary at the time they are put on the market. When goods appear in the stores for sale the different degree of productivity that exist in. the factories in which the goods are made does not show up. The competition between the sellers forces the owners of the less efficient means of production to sell at the same price as the more efficient. Socially necessary labor is, therefore, the basis of value. ~ The money form is termed "price." The employer is not running his business for the benefit of his health; he has in mind one thing only, Profits. The only thing he needs after he has purchased his factory and 1 the raw material is labor-power. He can then put his .workmen to work with the machines upon the raw material, and so pro- piiice he pays is the monetary ex- at hand in the labor market and the price he pays is the menetary expression of the excharfge value just the same as the price is with any other commodity. Like other commodities this is based upon the amount of labor socially necessary to reproduce it. But what produces labor-power? Surely nothing else but those necessaries of life that the worker must consume in order to be physically fit and leave another worker in his place when old age or death renders him incapable of work (note, however, that the struggle has become so keen that many workers cannot marry and produce offspring). These things can be summed up in the terms, food, clothing and shelter, and are themselves the product of labor so that the value of these necessaries must be the value of labor-power itself. Here, then, we have all the constituents of (that elusive thing, a "Job." Means of production, owned by the employer, and labor-power owned by the laborer. But after the worker has agreed to work all these things belong to the employer, for has not the laborer sold his commodity ? Let us see what happens after the THE WESTERN CLARION labor process has transformed the ^ raw, material into a finished commodity. The. sum of the values used up in the means of production reappear, but not so,the value of the labor-power. Labor-power is itself the creator of value and what augmentation takes place because of it, takes place, not on the basis of its cost, but of its duration. Since the .productivity of man is "always increasing whilst the time he is able to work does not change the value oX the workers food, clothing, and shelter is ever becoming smaller compared with the value he adds to the product by working upon it. The employer sells the finished product by putting it upon the market, where it exchanges for gold on the basis of socially necessary labor embodied in it. He makes, a profit on the whole transaction because the labor-power has added value to the raw material in ratio to its expenditure, reckoned by time, whilst he has only bought it on the basis ol the laborer's food clothing and shelter, a lesser value. But in order that goods may be sold, a buyer must appear. A buyer is not only one who wants the goods, but one who has the money to buy them with, and herein comes the rub. The mass of commodities produced by the whole working class have a far greater value than the wages of that class. Even after the , employing class has consumed an enormous amount in the form of luxury, after it has paid for the upkeep of the Army, the Navy, the Police, in a word the State, there still remains a surplus that can only be consumed by using it as a means" of developing countries that have hitherto not been capitistically dominated.^ This only makes things worse as time goes on, as these countries, as soon as their industries are created become competitors. The shipping of coton weaving 'machinery to India, for example, helps the English machinery manufacturer to dispose of his product, but as soon as the machines are operated the market for English cotton goods has shrunk, and if the development of India and China continues they will not-only be able to supply their own home market, formerly catered to by England, but will try to find a market outside. In fact India now exports some of the coarser grades of cotton goods. The conversion of the surplus products into- Capital can only take place when fields for investment exis|t; thatj jis to say, when there is an expectation of a profit to be derived therefrom. The surplus that can only be got rid of by converting into new capital is so great that profitable investments can not always be found for it, and it consequently accumulates and forms a glut on the market. Then is the time when mankind faces the absurd contradiction that producers starve because consumers are lacking-. All |these conditions are outside the control of the capitalist class, they follow as an inevitable consequence of production of goods for sale, by machinery owned privately with the working part of the people. wage-laborers.^ The contradiction cannot be solved without the abolition of the wage system, and the substitution of a form, of society based upon Production for use instead of production for profit. A- Tree. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE MATERIALIST CONCEPTION "^Tn^HEN we consider the complex- \E/ ity of man's nature and the manifold influences to which it is constantly* subjected, the absurdity of interpreting his actions by one particular cause becomes apparent. In seeking an explanation of human progress, or of the various manifestations of social life, we must ignore the individual, even groups of individuals. The ideals of the dominant cljass of any;M historical period are the prevailing ideals of that period. And in the economic conditions which sustain that class may be found the basic causes from which those ideals spring. But to assume that each individual reasons is to degrade the materialist conception of history to a mental make- . shift. The phenomena of a Marx or Owen devoting their intellect and energy to the well-being of the working class, under distressing conditions, is no exception to the rule laid down by Marx and Engels concerning historical developments Principally because science does not lay down rules, it formulates la%s. And when any principle is laid down as a natural law, its justification lies in the fact that all the known phenomena of the particular field to which it applies may be discribed within, its formula. There are no exceptions. Exceptions may prove rules, but they negative laws. The historic law formulated by Marx is not called upon to explain v/hy Nero played : :There will be a hot time in the old town tonight," while Rome burned; why an emancipated slave of his reign, Epictetus, could state that none but a slave could endure slaves, either to live with or be served by them;1 a thought by the way which has been many times pilfered duringv the. twenty centuries since he uttered it. What it is called upon to explain, and does, is why chattel slavery was almost universally accepted during Nero's time, and is almost universally abhored today. Or why in Nero's time, the beginning of the Christian era, mankind found pleasure in human beings butchering each other for sport, and the ruling class exerted much energy in providing material for these shows; while four centuries later declined to men "butchered to make a Rol man holiday" in spite of popular opinion. And why chattel slavery commenced to disappear at this time. Not because' Chrisjtianity was enobling men, but because Rome was no longer a conquering state, as in the bewildering splendour of her paling days, and was also torn by internal strife, and forced to defend her borders. She was too impover- . ... MHBfiSf .. *.TV THE WESTERN CLARION ished in wealth and manhood to indulge in such luxuries. In every age there are individuals whose fanatical zeal compels them to oppose their single strength to the multitude, jand even to death. Where these sad events have left an im- print on our historical records, it will be found that though singular in their fanaticism, sufficient of their contemporaries held opinion wifeh them to perpetuate their mem- ory[#and give emphasis to their deeds. Often to make their deaths the occasion of a spontaneous outburst against the evils they desired to abolish. ' So a Christian monk, Telemachus, was stoned to death early in the 5th century for attempting to prevent a gladiatorial combat in Rome. Following his death, however, no more human beings were called upon to carve each other for the amusement of the citizens of Imperial Rome. The case of John Brown may also be cited as another event, synchron- omous with a great moral and political revolution. But had John Brown not been hanged for his raid ou Kentucky in 1859, the great conflict fir the extention of chattel slave states would have been fought out and settled with no appreciable difference in the time schedule. The same may be said of Telemachus and mortal"combats of human beings for sport. @m mjk Between the extremes of all that is hateful in human. nature and all that is desirable, between say Lord Castlereagh and Robert Owen there exists an average" mean. . Castlereagh is actuated by the spirit of an age that is gone, Owen is inspired by an age as yet dimly seen. But the character of the times is type- fied by the average human being: Just as the average human labor power determines; the exchange value of commodities so does the average human character bespeak the social character of the day. A relation few members of society may escape the influence of the times in which they live, but the vast bulk of society's members, in their collective actions, must conform to, the social customs-forced upon them by the method whereby their social organism is sustained. And as this method changes so must their social customs. The influence of other factors are contributory to this change, such as latitude and longitude and altitude, mountain and plains, rivers and seas, climate and soil, flora and fauna, music and literature, but the economic factor is basic and paramount. History records with each economic change a corresponding moral and political readjustment in the social organism. Though many writers had sensed this fact, Marx and Engels were the first to embody it in a brief formula which adequately described Hi; the phenomena in unequivocable terms: '' The method of producing the material livelihood determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not men's consciousness which determines their life; on the contrary it is their social life which determines their consciousness." We cannot tell on what day an individual will die, but some .man can tell to a degree of certainty how many will die on a certain day. By studying averages some men make a meal ticket by foretelling weeks in advance how many people will attend a public function, or a ball game. Likewise of average man we may venture with certitude -his line of conduct. But of the individual he has a diseased liver, or* a bum stomach; an insatiable thirst and a puritanical government; or he may have chained in his mental garret a malicious devil, or an iniquitous god, of these afflictions pathology has much to say, but they lay beyond the sphere of historical inquiry. The Materialist Conception of History deals with society, and describes social phenomena. The individ ual must be studied and understood by other branches of science whose function it is to answer that purpose J. H. CAPITALISM'S NECROLOGY. "The Moving Finger writes^ and having writ Moves on " On the Wall of Human Society today is being written, in characters that need no interpreting, the Death Notice of Things as ther were and are. j|||f Exactly what the immediate future holds in store for us it \ is hard to say. But we can state with certainty that old Things, and their resultant Ideas, and Methods of Thinking, are in the melting pot. The System of Society known as Capitalism, is pounding on the rocks. Making its last bow. To describe this disintegrating svstem, to account for and explain it, has been, and is, the function of the real Socialist. In the struggle ..for existence the Working Class have naturally devoted any spare moments that they may have had to seeking relaxation from their 'toil. The work of studying the situation has been left to a comparative handful. The propaganda of Scientific Working Class Knowledge has been as "the Voice of One crying in the Wilderness.''MB But the Scene has changed, Impelled by forces generally unknown and unsuspected, by the Man-in-the- Street, Society finds itself plunged into what appears to be a sudden catastrophe; one for which there appears no adequate reason on the surface; one that the average mind places in the unsearchable category with earthquakes, wrecks, storms, and other (to it) inexplicable phenomena. The Socialist knows, and has known. From soapbox, platform, through paper and magazine; in season and out of season, he has continually pointed out the inevitable result of Natural Evolutionary Law in the field of human activity, and de- Cried the fatuitous idea that we are r ee - THE WESTERN CLARION exempt from Laws governing other forms of life struggling in a competitive environment. Competition and Exploitation in the Social Economy must ripen someday. The stronger will compete the weaker out of existence^in due course. The exploited will, even as the worm, turn at the limit of endurance. An industrial situation that admits of no expansion will burst. Exerything in the known Universe must be continually changing. :-MThe Great Law stipulates Progress or the making way for other forms. The apex of Capitalism in its old form has been reached. Unable to expand, unable to keep the wheels of industry going, helpless to support society its anarchistic and in-, efficient methods of production and distribution must .give way to some saner form or society will perish within sight of limitless resources. But society, as typified by the Working Class, does not intend to perish within sight of Salvation. War, that inevitable result of commercial competition, may spell a brief breathing space to the Owning Class, but from all around the World come signs of the preletarian awakening. Unprotested direction into the shambles of Capitalism's concomitant is no longer the order of the Day. Those limitless resources, and un- measurable power to operate them, hold out a promise to the dispossessed Workers of the World that, a Fairer Day is within their grasp. A day that shall mean the relegation of War.and Wage Slavery to the category of Cannibalism and Chattel Slavery. Mm W. W. Lefeaux. OUR FARMERS'S FORUM ^tt^!E> in this neck of the woods, \\J have recently had the amusing experience of listening to one of the JJ. F. of A. directors, the said experience being responsible for this screed. One of the arguments he brought forward for a stronger organization was 'that some one had to pay for the war, and that if the farmers were not fully represented ,in parliament they would have to pay more thant heir share of it.'' There are few men who thoroughly understand" their exact position in society; many of them admit they are slaves, but they do not know the slave position of the working class. Society as at present constituted is divided into two classes, namely the owning class (viz., those who own that to which I must have access to in order to live) and the non- owning class. The latter class sell their power to labor to the owning class, their labor power being produced as it is applied with all the other forces of production(machin- ery,etc., or 5jn. other words labor power in its concrete form) to produce certain commodities. The fact that the master class own the machinery in the first place and the slave having sold his power to labor in the second place, to the master, entitles the master to the ownership of the products of labor, therefore it follows that it does not matter what the war costs in dollars or food, clothing and shelter; the people who own must pay for it if it is paid for at all. The above line of argument brings -out another concrete point: That if the master class own the products of labor, then the slave class own nothing, so how can they pay for the war. Their position is: after the owning-class have divided it up, the cost of the reproduction of expended labor power is handed to them in the name of wages, in the case of farmers when they take the products of their labor power to market they receive on the average the cost of pro duction being what taxes they pay, the upkeep of tools, etc. If they did not they would soon go out of business, then how in the name of goodness can the farmer pay for the war. It is very amusing to hear these speakers talk about paying or receiving more or less than their share. I would like to know where shares comes in at all. In a slave society those who Own the products of labor do not talk, about shares. They say this is mine or ours; also those who have become wise do not talk about shares, they realize that a slave's portion is the food, clothing and shelter necessary to reproduce expended labor power. After all wars there has followed a bad depression in trade. Hoboes on the top, riding in the lap of luxury and hoboes on the bottom taking tie passes. The ones walking on the ties (railroad) looking for work that cannot be got, so how can they pay? Then again,* if they should get work, they only receive for it the cost of the reproduction of expended labor power. No, Mr. Working Man, don't worry about paying for the war or any debt contracted by the powers that be. Your chief worry must be how are we going to push this owning class off our backs, and do not talk about the end of the war. You have only one war, ana that is a continual war until you have destroyed the Ipresent foundation of society,and introduced in the place of a cutthroat system a system of co-operation, based on working class ownership of the means of production. Then you can talk about the time the war ended, and what you did to help win it and that war is the class war. Speed the day! C. W. Springford. Sr THE WESTERN CLARION The Western Clarion . _S5_gl3—i. , Published toy the Socialist Party of Canada at the office of tlie Western Clarion, N.E. corner Pender Street and Dunlevy Ave., Vancouver, B. C. Subscription Sates i Per 20 issues 1.00 Per 10 issues 0.50 Bundle Bates:—3 cents per copy per issue. In making remittance by cheque, exchange must be added. Address all coihmunications to Managing-Editor. "Western Clarion" office, N. E. cor. Pender and-^ Dunlevy Ave., Vancouver, B. C. Readers advising us of change of address can only insure c»rrect and prompt delivery by sending the old address along with the new. if yur. receive tills paper it is paid for. ■ pi .the number before your lb name on the yellow label of your paper reads 'JQ'J your subscription t y i expires with the next issue. Editorial Page 4 31 'Tis passing strange, but strange indeed, be the times LET US through which we DENY OUR- are passing. A world SELVES. ful of paradoxes, % hypocrisy and cant people by self-adjudged wise beings undeniably the veriest fools, is the one in which we are priveleged to live, and move, and have our being. Science, literature, art, hired or borrowed, paid for or voluntarily" presented, appear in this age of sordid commercialism as -instru- -ments-only in the devilish business of a further prosecution of the art of producing means of destruction. The bloodshed, the rape, and the | pillage ; the abolition of all property and the destruction of the home;- tbe violation of the marriage vow and the conventionalising of bastardy; these and the myriad other evils that were to engulf society and bring universal misery and chaos with the advent of the proletarian revolution, now blossom daily with bewildering rapidity and in rich profusion as the ultimate fruit of & fast decaying social system. The sacred contract now stands revealed in its true colors—a hollow abstraction. Things that were considered eternally inviolable are now seized with unhesitating hands and used or abused according to the dictates of our master's interests. Every ■ branch of art and learning has been perverted that a robber class might yet a little while still further rob. Even music is outraged, Wagner and Choppin are brusquely set aside- eclipsed in the innocuous drivel of an Irving Berlin. The WE! We of the proletaire, owing to exceptional conditions have been receiving most fabulous wages, living in the most profligate manner. This is treason, a blasphemy against God and an insult to the Brotherhood. We MUST be curbed. We MUST be subdued, WE MUST DENY OURSELVES! Then ring in the changes and let the curtain rise. Ah! What a "rise" was there my countrymen. Prohibition and Conscription! Efficiency and discipline is in reality meant. Still we must sacrifice something—in times like these. ■ Then let the worker be instructed to tread Courageously in the virtuous paths of thrift and sobriety- Let him (and her) be so enlfghtened that nothing short of paralysis will hamper his (or her) productive capacity. Let there be an end to fast living and sudden striking, to luxury and idleness. Make them all fight—or work. And by Hamlet's ghost make them do it cheaply. Precisely! And so act the second opens, properly staged and with the necessary^scenery, as a beautiful baeonless morning and a couple of meatless days. Come to think of it, though, there is no particular reason for anxiety. Our problem, until the .present time, has been to discover ways and means of obtaining, meat for the other five days. Yet must the giddy farce proceed. Women's battalions—and short rations, encased in iron-clad regulations. Oh, ye proletarians! The Gods and small fishes must in truth make merry over your ridiculous antics. In the glorious footsteps of the illustrious Nebbuchadnezzar you shall walk, in fairful imitation of your wiser fourfooted breathrem You shall eat grass, pre-digested no doubt, chopped alfalfa, bran, des- sicated sawdust, and other travesties upon articles of nutriment. Have not your masters demanded still further sacrifices ? And are we. not of those whom nature has designed and god hoth ordained to be the first to deny ourselves and the last to complain ? When will we DENY our master's right to rule and rob? When will we arise and, kicking over the traces of wage-slavery, stand forth as men and women,' free in mind and body, with the good things of the earth for ourselves and our kind? Then none shall say us nay, and the spectacle of denying ourselves in a land of plenty will appear as it really is. a tragic comedy. W. A. P. SLAVERY AND SLAVERY V^l/ HEBE are few people who will \yj not admit that the chattel slave was an individual Who participated very little in the consumption of wealth, but who undoubtedly was the person who produced it. Slavery was.a form.of exploitation that ' could not be covered over or explained away by arguments based upon the dogma that the worker was free and that if there were any evils Confronting him they were the sole fruit of laziness, drunkenness, or vice on his part—in a word—were his own fault. The conditions surrounding the slave j were simple and consequently, easy to understand. The sole power that compelled him to work for his master was that master's ability to make him do so by physical force- The movement of the slave from place to place was confined entirely to that which his master desired, because he was owned in exactly the same way that a horse or other domesticated animal THE WESTERN CLARION was. The slave had no right to dicker with his owner as to the length of time that he should work per day nor did he receive any latitude in the choice of his food and clothing. What the slave produced belonged to his master as a matter of course, no shadow of doubt existed in the minds of either the slave or his owner as to the basis of their rer lation, it beingv only too clear that subjugation was the condition, and might the sole excuse for the exploitation. The exploitation was easily seen, the slave could not but be aware of the fact that he produced all and that he merely received enough to keep him alive, in a condition fit to be of use to his master, who could appear • as nothing else than a consumer. Under feudalism a similar state of affairs existed. The serf worked on a small piece of land, the use of which was guaranteed him by the custom of the period, for his living. What he produced oc the land was his- He got his fire-wood from the neighboring forest and in most respects made all those things necessary to his existence. He was, however, tied to the manor and could only leave it on permission of the lord of that manor. This lord had the right to a certain number of day's work each week from each of his serfs, an din this way his estate was tilled. The serfs also had to render services at harvest time and make him certain payments in kind (seed, poultry, live stock and occasionally money) at regular periods of the year. In one respect the position of the serf was clearer than the slave's, for while the serf knew when he was producing for himself andw hen for the lord, the slave might well be excused for thinking that all the work he did was for his master, whereas as a matter of fact, the slave got part of what he produced back as food, clothing and shelter. This much cannot be denied that both the slave and the serf could not be ignorant of the fact that their masters got something- out of the mfor nothing. The worker employed for wages is in no such enlightened position- It appears to him as though all his labor is paid for. He enters into a contract with his boss, who agrees to pay him so much a day, the length of which is stipulated at the time the contract is made. At the end of the week, or month as the ease may be, he receives his wages which he is free to spend in whatever way he sees fit. If he likes to live cheaply (read lower his standard of living) he may save money and endeavor to rise into the ranks of the employing class, by starting in some small business, from which he has been told any industrious, thrifty and, above all, brainy, man can become a full fledged capitalist, own three of four buzz-waggons, a stone residence "on the heights," dripping with doodads, have a seat in the Senate, move amongst polite society, and in general be considered by the vast mass of the people to be one of those pub- lie spirited citizens, to whom God, in his infinite wisdom, has bequeathed the resources of the country. But hitrying to rise t out of the working class the ambitious one comes in contact with obstacles that in the great majority of cases prove insurmountable. However determined the ambitious worker may be to "make good,'' his efforts to save money will probably prove fruitless- The competition for the job has reduced wages to the point where little is left over after the cost of living has been squared at the end of the month. What little the worker finds . himself able to save by stinting his belly is found to be insignificant compared with the amount needed to start, as an employer of labor, today. Too often our ambitious friend finds himself out of work and in consequence his scanty savings dwindling. "Financial Stringencies" will come, in spite of all his plans, and his employers have the habit of introducing new and more efficient machinery and dispensing with -his services in consequence. If he does manage to start up in business, competition with larger and more efficient firms generally crush him and push him back into the ranks of. the proletariat. Organized labor finds itself, over a period of years, to be /very little better off than unorgan- * ized, except that is is able to put a stop to those little tyrannies that the bosses find that they are able to get away with where the workers are not combined at all- Competition for the job is not done away with by unions, so the gravitation of wages toward Value of the worker's energy is notf materially affected. In another column will be found an article, in which the wage worker's condition is analysed. It is shown that the intervention of a contract by no means does away with exploitation- Unpaid labor, work done on behalf of some other person for which no equivalent is given, exists today just as much as it did in the days of slavery or feudalism, notwithstanding the fact that the workers are unconscious ot it. The crazy actions of workers all over the civilized world at the present time can be explained only, by their ignorance of their position as wage slaves. Did the producing portion of *the human race realize that they are, basically, in the same position as the chattel slave and the serf it would not have taken such interest in matters that are of importance only to their masters^-TJhe Capitalist Class. Ambrose Tree. OBITUARY We regret to announce the death o,f Comrade John Erickson, who passed away in the mohth of July in Calgary. Comrade Erickson was an active worker in the movement for many years, but, owing to poor health, had been unable to take an active part recently. Calgary old- timers will remember Comrade Erickson not only for his activities in the movement,-but for his sterling personal qualities. The funeral ar- raingements were handled by Local Calgary, ■ -.., ■vi?^>vlv.■^^r^^^■':.:^:■:-.:■:^,;:-.e;■;^^■, ■■■;•: - e " -■■ -■' eA'.ee-ve — ^_a^^fete!t.:^Vvr ■ : <i!e3______; mmfmk I I 8 THE WESTERN CLARION OUR§ LITERATURE | Since the inception of the Socialist Party of Canada in 1905 it has ever been the aim of the membership to keep our propaganda, our paper and our literature of such a nature that there would be no need to-define our .stand on any of the popular issues in current politics- ..Prohbition, Conscription, Riciprocity and Woman Suffrage were all treated from the only standpoint that the class conscious slave can regard all and every issue from —effects of the system to be analysed for what they were.worth. Conditions change and with them also we must change. But in adapting ourselves to the changed conditions it is essential that we should continuously attempt to improve the quality of our propaganda, both written and spoken. We have experimented with the paper and have made several changes in the nature of the articles and letters published. We shall continue in the course we have followed. Our pamphlets have not always been the success that we would wish them\to be, and here there is possibly more room for improvement than in any other line of our propaganda- On another page can be found the commencement of a serial, Budxlen'sjf Slave of the Farm," in a new, revised and, we hope, a better form. The manuscript of this pamphlet has been in the office for some time but, owing to lack of funds, we have been unable to use it. Our treasury is picking up, and in two months, with its present rate of growth, we should be able to finance this work. The pamphlet is written in the form of letters and, until we are able to produce the entire work, we shall publish one or two letters a month • The following is a sample of how they will run. This is the best piece of work that Budden has ever written, and that it should be denied the public ,on account of a few filthy shekels is one of the crying evils of Capitalism. We are open for advance orders and money turned in for that purpose shall be kept in a separate fund until the pamphlet is published. The prices will be: Per copy, 10c; per dozen, 75c; per hundred, $6.00. Trusting that we won't have to hire an assistant secretary to look after the rush orders. THE DOMINION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE THE WESTERN CLARION 9 The Slave of the Farm Amongst the many problems confronting the Socialists of the world one of the oldest and most perplexing is that of spreading a proletarian viewpoint amongst the more or less scattered and detached agrarian workers. The presentation of our case to the wage slave has been a comparatively simple and direct process, the method of exploitation being at once easy of comprehension and stark naked to the most casual glance. With the country slave, however, the position has been obscured by the form of concentration of capital which extracts full measure of profit behind a mask of small ownership of property. Where the wage worker has but a job, and that only at 'spasmodic, intervals, the Farm Slave has:—" my land; my horses; my machinery"—and the steadiest kind of employment. He is, therefore, deeply mystified and in many cases aggrieved by the first presentation of the Socialist position he may hear or read, for he understands (and truly) that land—in common with other means of subsistance—is- to be made the common property of society, and that the Socialists contemplate confiscation of his hard won indebtedness. The unfaltering presentation of Marxian Socialism does not then make rapid strides anywhere and least of all amongst the rural communities. Yet experience has in_ fallibly shown that this is the only possible road to victory. Compromise may bring a big following, a deluded following, which, once having but superficially realised the nature of the deception, will turn and rend its erstwhile gods in an agony of reaction. History has shown, all too clearly, the fatal character of any such procedure. The Socialist Party cannot afford to ignore the great mass' of agrarian workers, neither dare we swerve to the right or left in delivering our message. A psuedo-Socialism is anti-Socialism. It is surely well enough known that the fatal weakness of the Commune of '71 in Paris lay as much in the fact that outside the three, or four cities involved, stretched' an ocean of ignorance—a mass of peasants to whom the revolutionists appeared as devils incarnate, who were used to beat down and smother the insurrection, as much as any other contributing cause. Just as, in like manner, the large,", rural, anti-taxation membership constituted the clay feet upon which that image of brass, the German S. D. P., was so perilously poised, and which fell back to violent and bloody reaction the moment a real strain was placed upon it. The Socialist Party of Canada, in its treatment of the agrarian question has so far maintained the revolutionary position, counting it more than good tactics to attack the minds and ignore the feelings of those whom it sought to enlighten. Operating, as it does, in a country largely agricultural, and being composed, in the main, of those who, having glimpsed both sides of the shield as wage worker and farmer, are enamoured of neither form of exploitation, it has naturally given a great deal of attention to the status of THE SLAVE OP THE FARM. For some years a polemic raged through the columns of the Official Organ of, The Socialist Party of Canada, the "Western Clarion," involving various views and opinions, most of which, however, gradually settled down into two opposing groups. • The position maintained with rigor by the older school was that the farmer stood in the same category as the wage worker, that farm machinery was but an extension of the carpenter's tool bag or the plasterer's hoe, and that farmers did not sell wheat,/oats or live stock, as such, but labor-power crystalized into these forms. The younger group, on the contrary, pointed out the impossibility of offering for sale so evanescent an article as the aforementioned, because it was apparent that the commodity labor-power—the thing offered for sale—was not the release of energy, or energy in mo- '1 -kinetic, known as labor or work, but was the ability to so perform, the passive or latent energy potential in the physique of the slave. It was contended, therefore, that the commodity, e. g., wheat, was a finished product sold by the farmer in the same way as a merchant sells his goods. And- further, that the view of the farm machine being a mere extension of the wage worker's tools, was in violent opposition to that very dialectic upon which the Socialist position so im- pregnably rests. "If," they argued, "the power loom, by growing up, changed not only the form of ownership but reversed its position to the Worker, growing from helpmeet to oppressor, why was this not also true of the farm machine?" All were agreed, however, that the proposition, "He who owns the means whereby I live, owns me" was an undeniable fact and constituted the basis upon which Being letters from Alf. Budden to a FeUow Farm Slave Comrade in Revolt. WM LETTER No. 1. My dear E,— ^^^^ The title under which these letters appear will not, you may be sure, appeal to the booster and optimist. "Slave, "as applied to our farmers of this last west, will by no means-please the real estate and bogus stock vendor. Journalists asd publicity men (as such) will reject with hired scorn and contumely what is written here, should they ever discover the existence of these pages. They, poor fellows, must rave and enthuse over what is not, and directly ignore or forget what is. • A miserable lot, and not one to be envied by those who would be free—at least in thought. The leaders of the various farm organizations will deeply regret the viewpoint taken in these letters, despite the pitiful howl put up by some farm slaves at the Lethbridge Convention of 1914, or else feign to regard it as the emanations of one .disgruntled Conservative. Old party heelers and workers will find cold comfort, for it is the purpose of this scribe in future letters to place these gentry in the category to which they belong, to prove, if possible, that far from being the Soil Slave's friend, they are ip very fact his worst foes. But you, who have worked your fingers to the bone; you, who have suffered exile, who have been "filed upon by a homestead," and who at last gave up in despair . you, who upon many a bitter winter's day have ridden or tramped behind "dumb, driven cattle, hauling cordwood for a meagre existence, you will find some explanation, perhaps, why these things be. You will recognize .at least that some points are clear where before we were somewhat hazy in our explanation of the remarkable situation that the farm slave keeps producing m.cre, and becomes steadily poorer. You will, 1 think, realize why the "Slave of the Farm" is a slave,, and the way .to his emancipation. These letters, of course, do not pretend to cover all the ground or give all the truth, but if through this medium some other worker can be induced to study the Socialist position, you, I know, will feel glad, and I shall rest satisfied. The business of boosting the West has developed into a science; no effort has been spared to obscure the real state of affairs; no stone left unturned to seduce tlie nimble dollar from the pocket of the "easy mark." All over the world the virtues and beauty of the Canadian people, the wealth and quantity of "'our" natural resources, the splendor and joy of "our'' scenery, and the opportunities for the investment of Capital at high rates of interest have been trumpeted. You will smile, of course, at the idea that virtue and beauty, health and joy, can exist as a result of tlie "investment of Capital at high rates of interest," but we must remember .that many, many of our fellow slaves still have this master class viewpoint. The soil slave himself howls and howls aloud for Capital; he weeps to embrace his most implacable enemy. / all investigation must rest. The net result of the discussion seems to have been that after all the real problem which must be solved is laying bare the process by which the vast quantities of farm products are silently juggled out of the . hands of the operatives into the maw of the capitalist class. This accomplished, it was felt .that the task of enlightening THE FARM SLAVE to his real position and class interests would be considerably advanced. This pamphlet essays the presentation of some fact3 and figures pointing to that end which may stimulate further enquiry, raise some little argumentation, assist in the process of education, and—pass on, to be replaced by a more comprehensive, concise, and elaborate presentation of further developments, as did the first "The Slave of The Farm" of some years ago. DOMINION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Those in charge of the "Ananias" policy of boosting lost no opportunity to play the game. The stranger crossing the continent, the journalist or editor, the statesman or author (if he be of sufficient importance), is induced to take his impression of the Canadian West from the wide windows of the Pullman coach or the deep armchairs of the Canadian Club. His viewpoint is colored by the purple and amber of wines, delicately served. Wined and dined, feasted and feted, beguiled and bewitched, he hastens home to write a glowing account of Canadian prosperity, or make brilliant after-dinner effusions on Canadian hospitality. The grim story of settling the land, the wretched shacks, the dugouts and sod houses, the suffering of the working soil slaves who are making the West what it is, are most carefully Tridden from •his view. It is doubtful if he would write of them did he manage to clear his vision from the rainbow hues of choice cigar smoke and rare vintages. He is not trained that way. He will dilate for hours on an abstract "Lady of the Snows." He has seen the well- laid cities, the peaks of the Rocky Mountains; he has taken drinks with City Mayors, and inspected the experimental farms, and he knows ALL about the Canadian West. Speeding along behind a giant locomotive, a bewildering panorama of changing scenery is presented by the flying train. From St. John to Vancouver, he sees the hand of man busy, moulding from a wilderness all the elements of modern civilization. Here are churches* and segregated districts, hotels and Salvation Army strongholds, associated charities and millionaires, factories and policemen, soldiers and slaves, autos and shoeless .tramps, millions of bushels of grain, herds and flocks of sheep and swine, cattle fat and ready for the block, great flour mills and starving men and women. These latter, however, do not "get into the papers"; it would not do, you know.e^w^ From coast to coast the noise of industry catches the ear. Labor at work building a giant civilization, that it may live in semi- savagery; forging the chains* of its own bondage, that masters in Monte Carlo may play the game and never miss their losses. The coming of autumn sets the stage for the grandest scene of all, makes display of "our great wealth" more seductive than at any other time. From Winnipeg west, the country is golden with waving grain and shocked fields. Giant threshers hum and hurl their straw streams<skyward. Binders, "click-click-click" behind, straining teams and sweating "shocking" slaves. The shout of teamsters and the jingle of harness mingle pleasantly with the whirr of countless coveys of game birds, frightened and fluttering from bluff to bluff. Red and russet and gold are the prevailing colors; work—the ruling passion. Far overhead the soaring vault of an ^"Italian" sky, through which the fleecy cloudlets sail, peaceful and unsoiled, as if in mockery of the sweating slaves below, Low down upon the horizon a smudge of drifting smoke—tractors at work. Over yonder the faint hum of a roaring freight. Well mumn 10 THE WESTERN CLARION might tlie gods of agriculture feel glad; small wonder the wretched shacks of the farmers seem to hang their heads and crouch down, shabby and forlorn, amid such a ruck of wealth. ||pl The slave himself is impressed, as you well know. How many times have you and I laughed about it. How many times has that hope which springs eternal risen even in our breasts, as we gazed upon the ruddy splendour of labor's creation 1 "How many times remarked "Tha.t now we have such a good crop, things will be easier.",How many times have we been deceived? You know we had strange notions of our giddy selves. We talked about j j our country'' and ' our crops'' for all the world as if we owned them. There are thousands still who1 so believe; even as they work, threshing the crop, they have forgotten the strenuous labor of the last few months, the weary days and nights watching the sky for hail or wind. They have no memory'of last yearns experience, how, somehow, the crop leaked away and left them still poor. The countryside is red with shocked grain, the powerful property sense awakes iu him again, the shadow of a substance long since passed away; the ideas of old time peasant proprietor mingled with the Capitalist property notions culled from newspapers. He has forgotten if he ever knew he is a slave. He is fellow with Donald Smith co-partner with William Van Holme. He will sing the siren song of prosperity, if questioned by a stranger, himself standing in his wretched overalls •» Small wonder the matter is easy for the publicity man. To persuade the people of other lands, that here is a free and happy people, is no difficult task under these peculiar circumstances. The man in the Pullman has, after all, some excuse for his ignorance, when the farm slave himself strives to conceal his real condition, even to himself. That, which neither seem to understand, however, is the* meaning of the coming of Capital, and no doubt it is hard if you persist in taking your ideas of economics from th.e newspapers. The significant fact that side by side with the eoming of the Pullman, with those shining rails over which the train glides so swiftly those straight ruled farms, those slim, uncanny elevators, this freight train loaded with machinery, the death blow to liberty was for the time being dealt. You, my dear E., will see this quite readily; alas- there are so many whe do not. It seems a most flagrant contradiction that the farm slave is a slave because of toil-saving machinery. It'seems absurd and an unthinkable thing, that the coming of machine industry should render its operatives the more slavish. It requires quite an effort to realize that Tender Capitalism—^because these things are Capital—the*more they tend to saving labor, the more intense and prolonged that labor becomes. Yet this is in very fact true. No sooner does a railway enter a farming community/ than a howl is raised for another line to relieve the people from the exactions of the first comer. The great threshing machine is but an iron chain to bind the slaves of the farm closer to the masters who exploit them; farm machinery'but whips and scorpions to torment them. And now you will hear someone exclaim: "Are the Socialists then opposed to the coming of a machine Are they new Luddites? machine breakers? reactionaries? Indeed, No! We welcome all human inventions to displace labor. Our quarrel is a matter of ownership. Shall the machine master us, or shall we be its master? Shall the owners of this machinery a small class of parasites, continue to hold these things so vital to our existence?' "He who owns the means whereby I, live, owns me." And, of course, as we shall see later, the farm slaves's "ownership'' over means of production is a colossal, if somewhat grim, joke. To hear the tattered homesteader talk of 'my" farm and "my" machinery is a thing- over which the srods must need laugh. RUSSIA AND OURSELVES HE situation created by the Russian Revolution is in many respects not without its humorous side. Hailed at first by the British Government as the "glorious deliverance of the Russian peoples," the B. G. now takes up the "wait and see'' stand with an occasional transition to the "come back" all I have said''—both eyes being meanwhile centred on the Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies- The maniacal ravings of the labor crooks, too, along with the quite-understood activities of the B. S. P., the I. L. P., and the rest, towards the Russian worker, is not without a touch of real humour- • Each and all are tumbling over themselves in their efforts to advise the Russian how to make the best use of his diplomatic opportunity. The situation resembles, in some ways, that good time when the "Daily Herald" League sent Tom Mann to South Africa, during the period of the farcical strike, to teach tjhe working class there the real art of economic organization/ It was just another example of the, pupil knowing more than the \ teacher, with a simple reminder that it was sheer impudence that prompted the sending of Tom Mann: Let it be said at once, the Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies requires no advice from the Labor recruiting sergeants on this side of the water., We# Socialists make it plain that we are not prepared to' congratulate the ..Russian peasant upon assisting the Russian capitalist class to a more complete dominance. True, the workers there, through the temporary dislocation of affairs, have seized certain advantages. True, also,, it is, that the declaration "no annexations, no indemnities," is a staggering blow for the Allied aims, yet we ourselves are not going into hysterics regarding it- Certainly we are not to be found crying peace talk along with those who, like Phillip Snowden and J. Ramsay McDonald, have never ceased to vote Avar credits during nearly three years of mad, murderous slaughter. Just how low down and dispicable the "part played by the labor crooks ha£ been is shown by the following gem-mouthed at the Leeds menagerie by one of the chosen Stockholm^candidates:^ Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, moving the resolution hailing the Eussian revolution, regretted that when war broke out British democracy had not kept hold of the situation.— Daily Eypress, 4-6-17. That the workers here were never iu a position to resist the starting of the war chariots the merest child miist know, but Ramsay Mac. took particular care that they never would stop them if it lay within the power of him and his party to prevent it. The action of the labor leaders at tlie Trades Union Congress at Bristol ir 1915, in crushingly voting down a resolution of censure for not having secured some sort of guarantee from the Government that adequate compensation would be provided for the disabled and the dependents of those 4 i THE WE'STEBN CLARION 11 losing their lives in the war proves conclusively how beautifully the labor fakers helped the workers to "keep hold of the situation" in the early days of the conflict. The activity of such people in mouthing peace talk just now is consistent with the laudable desire to "get right" with, the war-sick Tommies, whose trade union contributions keep them in fat jobs, ere those war- sick Tommies return to make a few enquiries. That we have due justification for refusing the slap the Russian on the back, with expressions of sickly sentiment, congratulating him upon having achieved his emancipation (sic!) is clearly shown by the fact that the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies despatched a congratulatory message to the Leeds conference in which an invitation to Stockholm "was embodied- Despite the dearth of news from Petrograd and other centres we are in. a.position to know that the Russian capitalist class still hold the field, both economically and politically. Ii it were not so, then M. Kerensky, clearly an agent of the Russian ruling class, would have been removed long ago. Indeed, his election could never have been mooted by the victorious proletariat. Sighs are not wanting that the workers out there are already losing strength, as the following words issued in manifesto form by the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies to the Commander of German troops on the Russian fjont in reply to the pourparlers with a view to concluding' peace, bear witness: He has forgotten that Russia knows that the overthrow of her Allies would mean the overthrow of Russia and the end of her political liberty.—Daily Chronicle, 10-6-17. Such words are hardly indicative of class-consciousness and form strong contrast to the much-lauded "no annexation, no indemnity" pronouncement. When, too, it is pointed out that just prior to the issuing of this statement a meeting of the self-same deputies had stood up and vocifer ously cheered M. Kerensky, the new figurehead of Rusian oppression, it will become increasingly apparent that in giving trust to such a body the Russian worker is relying upon the proverbial broken reed- Small wonder, then, th'at the labor hacks in this country are so anxious to assist in their usual slimy game of confusing working-class minds and conflicting vital issues- If proof shoud be wanted of Kerensky's little game—and,-needless to say, he has been pointed to as a genuine Socialist by the prostitute Press—it is contained in the following extract from an Order of. the Day issued by the wily Minister of War to the Russan troops: Remember that whoever looks behind, stops, or draws back will lose everything. Do not forget that if you defend not the honor,.*liberty, jmd dignity of the country, your names -will be cursed. The wiH. of the people, must rid the country and the world of' violators and usurpers. Such is the high deed to ''which I call you.—Daily News, 28- 5-27. It would appear as though Keren- sky's mortal fear lest the wretched soldiers look back i!s prompted by a dread that his own game might be discovered. The chances are, too, that if he, the Russian soldier stands to lose everything, he will also be losing his chance of a German bullet. Certain it is that enough evidence has been forthcoming to conclusively prove the reluctance of a very large proportion of the Russian army to continue the senseless' slaughter which has transformed tjhe European plains into vast graveyards. Briefly examining the American intervention one is . struck by the similarly black treachery of the labor leaders, such as Gompers and his crowd, to that of our own so-called Socialist parties. They too will adopt the same backing-out moves v/hen peace seems imminent as our gang. These moves, however, become increasingly dificult as the war drags on, for the age of learning is upon us- Proof of this could hardly be more obvious than the latest propos al of the Government to give sectional enfranchisement to women in order to hide the huge slump in votes that must ffcee the masterclass nominees at the elections that must follow a declaration of peace, Increasing evidence is forthcoming of the dread of the international capitalist class at the great unrest shown even now, during the carrying through/ of a great war—an unrest as ye't in its infancy, but which is rapidly expanding and will continue to do so. Capitalist society is sapping its own strength; it is stagering under the sheer weight of its own exhausting intensity. Mr. Balfour himself declared, in addressing the Canadian Parliament during his recent visit to Canada: We are convinced there can be only one form of government, whatever it is called, and' that is where the ultimate Control lies xin the hands of the people. We have staked our last dollar on it, and if democracy fails us we shall be bankrupt indeed.—Common Sense, 9-6-17. Whether Mr. Balfour does or does not believe that the ultimate control today lies in the hands of the people, the present writer is not seriously concerned with.: The approaching bankruptcy of his class is as certain as the equinoxes. Meanwhile we of the Socialist Party will continue to fight straight, convinced that when we again face our fellow workers no man will be able to show that we have falsified, in the slightest particular, the cause we claim to uphold- Let us not, therefore, be deluded into beliefs concerning the new Russian Constitution which we know to be fallacious. The Russian workers are still the bottom dogs, while the capitalists of Russia are still basking in luxury and idleness. A few more weeks and the dupes of the Russian financiers will lapse once more into their wonted miserable condition. , Only through the class-conscious organization on political lines can the Russian proletariat emerge from their ong-endured bondage. In this they resemble the workers of all m&mMMMLWm 12 1 THE WESTERN CLARION other countries, and to the work of education necessary to^ achieve such organisation I commend all Russian Socialists. b. b. m SECRETARIAL SCRAPS The Elections With the passing of the Compulsory Service Act and the cleanup on the Canadian Northern Bonds the present Dominion Parliament is about ready to go out of business and leave the stage ope nfor the choice of a fresh governing body for our fair dominion. What the decision of the proletaire of Canada shall be can only be discovered by an election. That they shall have ;a chance to vote in their own interests in at least a few constituencies is shown in another paragraph. Our candidates are running, as they always have done, on the straight party platform—no compromise, no political trading. Our Candidates So far there seems to have been a little difficulty in filling all the constituencies offering in the coming elections The nominees to date are: Vancouver City, W. A. Pritchard; Bow River, Alberta, J. Reid; Red Deer, Alberta, Joe Knight. We have been led to believe that Cumberland, B. C, also intends to run a candidate, and understand that there are various districts throughout the country, not yet heard from, where j our candidates will run. We hope that all locals who intend to nominate candidates will advise this office as soon as possible. Charlie Lestor in Jail We have word from Fairbanks, Alaska, that Comrade Lestor has been sent down for one year and $1,000.00 fine on a charge of seditious utterances. The case is being appealed and comes up during this month. As his wife and two children are dependent on the movement and the charges for legal service are especially high in the Northern Country a committee has been formed for the purpose of raising funds to conduct his defense. Anyone of Lester's many friends. throughout the country who wish to subscribe to this fund may do so by remitting either through this office or direct to Comrade Prank P. Manton, Sec.-Treas., Lestor Defense Fund, P. O. Box 930, Fairbanks, Alaska. Economic Classes Of the many forms which our propaganda takes possibly none is so effective as the formation of economic classes and the earnest study of the works of Marx and Engels in company. We have word that classes are starting up in both Swift Current and Regina. These classes are to be composed of non-party members. That there is a desire to become acquainted with the basis of the party is encouraging news. Saskatchewan That the organization in Saskatchewan has lain dormant for some time is wm known. The signs are abundant that the ground is ripe for an Organising trip through that province. The fact that we are con- tinualy hampered for lack of funds goes without saying but money could be invested in a lot worse ways than the routing of an organiser through that country at present. Winnipeg Local Winnipeg sent in an inter- 'esting account of their activities for the past two months ,,the other day. . The returned soldier seems to be giving a lot of trouble there and effectually stopped their open air meetings. That the people of any district in Canada should stand for such tactics on the part of any group merely shows the grip that the patriotic junkers have taken on the public. After the war we may look for a different outlook from the majority. Contributors Our Scrap regarding the shortage of writers last month has born some fruit. We should like to see a lot more coming in yet. If your first attempt is not accepted don't let that discourage you. Writing is a trade and it is not to be expected that you shall sit down and develop into a Dickens or Thackery in a moment. Get something to say then say it as naturally as a pen will let you. If it is possible to rewrite it in any acceptable form, your stuff will be used. Grammer can l>e corrected but there must be, an idea underneath. Get something to say, write it, then mail it here and we. will do the rest. ST. CATHERINES REPORTS Comrade A. Grewar, organiser of Local St. Catherine's, sends in an interesting account of their activities. The Labor Party—that still-born child of the fakirs throughout Canada—is again being • resusciated in an attempt to cloud the issue between Capital and Labor. We cannot do better than quote A. Grewar "s words:— A .meeting was held by the Labor party at Thorold. Ont., on August 5th, the chief speaker being Allan Studholm, of Hamilton. The audience was about sixty al told, and included a number of the boys from St. Cats. I listened to^the speaker 1o the bitter end, find drew my oa\u conclusions. Permit me to say, workers of .Canada, that the Labor party is simply a bunch of labor men seeking office on the Liberal platform. Always remember the story of the skunk—a change of name does not alter the smell of the animal. We asked for the .right to ask questions, and one of the comrades was allowed the floor. He handed out the straight revolutionary goods, to which the speaker of the evening replied advising us to go to the trenches if we wanted blood. At this stage of. the game the crowd got hostile so, like our galant lads in Flanders, we kept our heads low in the trenches for the time being at least. It is very hard to carry on propaganda in this burg at present;, the only wa yleft open being through the ' | Western . Clarion, '.^ff * which I would like to see taken up by every Red in the Dominion in a more systematic manner. The local here has been instrumental in putting over 80 ;1i new subs, on the list since last January. Some weeks I have got as many as ten subs, by my own effort, and I feel confident that every member in Canada can do the same thing if he or she employs the same methods. Write to the office of the '"Clarion" for a bundle of say ten per month. Give a free copy to the slave whom you think will read it, and tell him you are taking subs, for this paper, and get him to promise you that he will subscribe for it. Once he has made the promise keep at him every time you'meet him till you get his name and address and above al get the price, making that the last thing you speak about. Always have a small note book and pencil in your pocket and get his name and address and tell him you will call for the price later. We have been very successful with this method here, and have been at the top of the list every month since January. Yours in revolt, Adam Grewar, Organiser Local St. Catherines II No. 30. IN A NUTSHELL It is estimated that about 100,000,- 000 years must have elapsed since the first and lowest forms of life appeared on the earth's surface. Only 4,000 years have passed since the first recorded history of man's activities. A form of civilization was then in existence in Asia Minor and what mighty strides have since been taken, insofar as man is concerned, in that short space of time. We find mankind at that time living in a condition known as Chattel Slavery. This condition continues until, with changing methods of production and changing economic conditions, new social relationships come into being. Feudalismis the next social order. Then with mighty leaps and bounds the mode of production is again entirely changed. The tools of yesterday are thrown into the discard and mighty ma chines are the order of the day. As before the social relations undergo a corresponding change. • With new tools and new methods of production we find ourselves at the most important part of man's history—important to us because we are living in this period —Wage' Slavery. The problems which arise from this latest forim of slavery must be understood by us if we are to continue to develop. Today the slave is not owned by any individual^" nor is he controlled by any one landowner, but he is none the less a slave to that portion of society that owns and controls the tools which he must use in order to produce the things necesary to humanl ife. The wage-laborer is in a more slavish position than any of his predecessors in spite of the fact that he thinks he is free. He owns nothing but his power to labor, and this he must sell to those who control the tools of production in order to live. If he cannot sell his labor power he may starve. And this at a time when the worker can produce more in less time than ever before. The mode of production today is social, no one producing any finished article, but all the workers co-operating in the production of all the wealth. Despite this the product is owned by those who own the -machine, and is only distributed when profits can be made by so doing. The workers cannot buy back all they produce. A surplus is left which must be disposed of. The larger the surplus the less employment for the slave. Therefore the more of the good things the worker produces the less.hei s able to get. Poverty in the midst of plenty! The only portion of society in whose interest it is to change this condition is the portion who suffer by it. The workers suffer because they do not understand the forces at work in society. When the workers understand these forces there will be no need to call on them to /unite. Workers of the world under stand, and your chains will speedily vanish. J. S. DOMINION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Convened in the office of the Secretary, 13th August, 1917. present: J. Kavanagh, J. Shepherd, J. Harrington, J. G. Morgan, and the Secretary. J. Cf. Morgan in the- chair. Minutes adopted as read. Correspondence: M. T. Kirby, Tournour Island, B. C; Alta,/P. E. C. (4); J. Reid, Calgary; P. McDefmott, Rocky 'Mountain House; J. S. Johnston, Lethbridge; Local Calgary; M McNeill, Erskine; W. P. Dal- ton, Strathcona, Alta.; W. J. Ellis, Regina; Thos. Foulteton, Eyefbrow, Sask.;' Local Winnipeg; B. W. Todd; Anti-Conscription League, Winnipeg, Man.; Mervyn Smith, Kitchener; A. Grewar,. St. Catherines, Ont.; Local Montreal; J. Shane, Montreal; P. Q.; Moses Baritz (4); C. M. O'Brien, Detroit; Mother Earth Pub. Co., New York; A. Henderson, London. Moved and seconded (Harrington—Kavanagh) that we take steps to have the pamphlet '' Slave of the Farm,'' published, that we run it in serial form in the "Clarion 5' starting with the preface and first letter in the Sept. issue and insert a notice calling for advance orders.—Carried, ried. Moved and seconded (Kavanagh-Mitchell) that owing to ,the interest manifested by the various locals and individuals throughout the country, and the fact that the secretary is on half time, and consequently rushed in the work, we have ,the minutes of this committee published in the paper as before. Financial Report Western Clarion Receipts Subs Sp .' $18.25 Directory | 13.00 Bundles 10.00 C. M. F. Assets: , 4.40 C. M. F. Donations | 3.00 $48.65 Expenditure. Printing p j $63.00 Wages i 17.00 Miss 13.65 §||| $93.65 D. E. C. Receipts. Literature ||J| $10.50 Stamps 3 f| 24.50 $35.00 Expenditure Miss $1.60 Adjourned , M 14 HI 1 Si . 1 1 THE WESTERN OLARION LITERATI] FOB SALE BY HK Dominion .'■'";'■'': Executive Committee 401 Pender Street E., Vancouver, B. 0. Capital, Vols. L, II., III. (Marx) :' $2.00 Ancient Lowly, Vols. I, II. (Ward) '. $2.00 Ancient Society (Morgan) ...$1.50 History of the Commune of 1871 (Lissigaray) $1.00 Essays on the Materialistic Conception (Labriola) ....$1.00 Marxian Economics (Unterman) $1.00 Socialism and Modern Science (Ferri) 1 ....$1.00 Physical Basis of Mind and Morals (Fitch) ......$1.00 Industrial History of England (Gibbons) $1.00 Positive Outcome of Philosophy (Deitzgen) ......$1.00 Landmarks of Scientific Socialism (Engels) $1.00 The Theoretical System of Karl Marx (Boudin) $1.00 An Introduction to Sociology (Lewis) .: $1.00 Savage Survivals (Moore) I $1.00 History of Great American Fortunes, Vols. I., II., III. (Myers) 1 , f j j .'...$1.50 History of Canadian Wealth (Myers) 7...:..?.. ...$1.50 Evolution, Social and Organic (Lewis $ .50 Germs of Minds in Plants (France) $ .50 Feuerbach (Engels). ,..m $ .50 Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels) .$ .50 The Law of Biogenesis (Moore) $ .50 The Right to be Lazy, and Other Studies (Lafargue) ....$ .50 Revolution and Counter Revolution (Marx) $ .50 Science and Revolution (Unterman) ~'„; $ ;50 The Evolution of Man (Boelsche) | $ .50; Vital Problems in Social Evolution (Lewis) $ .50 Socialism ,its Growth and Outcome (Morris and Bax) $ .50 History of Politics (Jenks) | $ .50 Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (Engels) $ .50 Eighteenth Brumaire (Marx) $ .50 PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE each ■■> •• •• •• it •■ •' •■> •• •• -• T II E WE STERN CLARION mmmmmmma, I SEND YOUR rintin TO THE Western Clarion ' m 15 Socialist Party Directory MWMM.pjaW DOMINION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Socialist Party of Canada, meets every alternate! Monday 8 p.m., Socialist Hall, N.E. cor. Pender and Dunlevy, Vancouver, B. O—W. B. Mitchell, Secretary. BEITISH COLUMBIA PROVINCIAL Executive Committee, Socialist Party of Canada, mets same as above. . ALBERTA AND~ SASKATCHEWAN PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. — Secretary),, John P. Maguire, Box 785, Edmonton. Phone 4803. NEW BRUNSWICK PROVINCIAL EX- ECUTIVE COMMITTEE—A Taylor, Secretary, East St. John, N. B. For Party literature and information on organization matters, etc., write to above address. LOCAL ALHAMBRA, No. 74 (Alta.) S. P. of C—P. O. Peterson, Secretary, Horseguards, Alta. LOCAL CALGARY, No. 86 (Alta.), S. P. of C.-r-Business meetings every alternate Wednesday, 8 p:m. Economic class every Monday, . 8 p.m. Headquarters, 220, 8th Ave. E. Secretary, H. Clifford Morgan, Suite 49, Thomas Block, LOCAL CLAYTON, No. 83 (B.C.)) S. P. of C. —John T. Dempster, Secretary, Clayton, B. C. = g LOCAL CRAWFORD BAY, No. 72 (B.C.), S. P. of C—J. E.. McGregor, Secretary Crawford Bay, B. C. LOCAL CUMBERLAND, B. C, No. 70.— Business metings every first and third Sunday in the month, at 10:30 a.m., Economic classes every Monday and Friday, at 7 p.m., in the Socialist Hall opposite P. O. Regular Propaganda meetings at every opportunity. C. Walker, Box 181, corresponding and financial secretary. LOCAL ECKVILLE, No. 58 (Alta.), S. P. of C.—J. F. Knorr, Secretary, Eck- ville, Alta. LOCAL ENDERBY, No. 65, S. P. of C— Business metings first Sunday in each month at 2:30 p.m. Propaganda third Sunday in each month at 2:30 p.m., iu MM- the Theatre, Main St., Everybody welcome. J. Pilkington, Secretary, R. R.. No. 4, Armstrong, B. C. LOCAL EDMONTON No. 1, S. P. of C — Free reading room and headquarters Room 5, Bellamy Blk. Propaganda meeting every Sunday in the Bijou Theatre, First St., at 8 p.m. Business meetings every Tuesday at 8 p.m. J# Slater, organizer. E. H. Flegg, I secretary, P. O. Box 785. LOCAL ERSKINE, No. 32 (Alta), S. P. of C.J—A. A. M'cNedll, 'Secretary, Erskine, Alta. LOCAL FERNIE, S. P. of O., hold edu- cational meetings in the Socialist Hall every Sunday at 7. Business meetings third Sunday in each month, 7:30 p.m.., Economic class every Sunday afternoon at 2:30. Oscar Erickson, Secretary, Box 505. LOCAL ROSSLAND, No. 25, 13. P. of C. —Meets in Miners' Hall every change Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Will Jones, Box 125, Secretary. LOCAL FERGUSON FLATS, No. 85 (Alta),—-O. L. Fuller, Secretary, Ferguson Flats, Alta. LOCAL KINDERSLEY, No. 10 (Sask.) S. P. of C—W.: K; Bryce, Secretary, Collins, Sashk. ' m$'' LOCAL LETHBRIDGE, ALTA., No. 13, S. P. of C.—Meets every; Sunday at 3:30 p.m., in Miners' Hall. Secretary, W. Shaw, 624—14th St., S. Wm. Devoy Organiser. MEDICINE HAT (Lettish) Local S. P. of C. Meets first Sunday in the month at 528 C Princess Ave., J. R. Kalnin, Secretary.vllgllgig; LOCAL MARKERVILLE, No. 31 (Alta.), S. P. of C—S. E. Baldwin, Secretary, Markerville, Alta. LOCAL MONTREAL, No. 1, S. P. of C— Address all enquiries to P,. O. Box 253, Station B, Montreal, P. Q. LOCAL FLOWERDALE, No. 71 (Alta.), S. P. of C—Mrs. J. R. Macdonald, Secretary, Richdale, Alta. LOCAL SUNDIAL, No. 70 (Alta), S. P. of C.—Mrs. A. Thorburn, Secretary, Sundial, Alta. LOCAL SILVER LEAF, No. 101 (Alta.) S. P. of C.—Ed. Haugen, Secretary, Baraca, P. O. Alta. ^^^^^ LOCAL ST. CATHERINES, No. 30 (Ont.) S. P. of C.—D. Thompson, Secretary, 34 William Street LOCAL ST. JOHN, N. B., No. 1, S. P. of C.—"Visiting Comrades welcomed. Secretary, Stanford E. White, 24 Main St. LOCAL TRAIL, No. 37 (B.C,(, S. P. of C. —D/ Wilson, Secretary, Box 531. LOCAL TRAVERS, No. 55 (Alta.), S. P. ofC.—W. A. Brown, Secretary, Trav- ers, P. P., Alta. LOCAL VANCOUVER, No. 1, S. P. of C. —Business meeting every Tuesday evening, 401 Pender St. E. Propaganda meeting at the Rex Theatre every Sunday, 8 p.m. Secretary, J. Kavanagh. VANCOUVER LETTISH LOCAL No. 58, S. P. of C.—Business meeeting every first Sunday of the month and propaganda meeting every third Sunday at 11 a.m. Open to everybody, at Socialist Hall, N.E. cor. Pender and Dunlevy.- Secretary, R. Amat, Box 667. LOCAL VANCOUVER, B. C, No. 45, Finnish. Meets every second and fourth Wednesdays in the month at 2215 Pender St. East, Ovia Lind, Secretary. LOCAL VICTORIA, sNo. 2, S. P. of C— Headquarters and Reading Room, 1424 Government St., Room 8. Business meetings every second and fourth Tuesday in the month. Secretary, J. Stevenson, 1424 Government St. LOCAL WINNIPEG, No. 3, S.;P. of O— Business meetings every Sunday 11 a.m. Economic Class every Monday 8 p.m. Headquarters, Room 5—602 Main Street. Secretary, Leo Schoor. LOCAL OTTAWA, No. 8 (Ont.) S. P. of C— Secretary, A. G. McCallum, 276 Laurier Ave. m \ 16 THE WESTEEN CLAEION e' PLATFOR Socialist Party of Canada We, the Socialist Party of Canada, affirm our allegiance to, and support of, the principles and program of the revolutionary working class.' Labor, applied to natural resources, produces all wealth. The present economic system is based upon capitalist ownership of the means of production, consequently, all the products of labor belong to the capitalist class. The capitalist is therefore master; the worker a slave. So long as the capitalist class remains in possession of the reins of government all the powers of the State will be used to protect and defend its property rights in the means of wealth production and its control of the product of labor. The capitalist system give to the capitalist an ever-swelling stream of profits, and to the worker, an ever-increasing measure of misery and degradation. The interest of the working class lies in setting itself free from capitalist exploitation by the abolition of the wage system, under which this exploitation, at the point of production, is cloaked. To accomplish this necessitates the transformation of capitalist property in the means of wealth production into socially controlled economic forces. The irrepressible conflict of interest between the capitalist and the worker necessarily expresses itself as a struggle for political supremacy. This is the Class Struggle. Therefore, we call all workers to organize under the banner of the Socialist Party of Canada, with the object of conquering the political powers, for the purpose of setting up and enforcing the economic program of the working class, as follows: 1. The transformation, as rapidly-as possible, of capitalist prop-^ erty in the means of wealth production (natural resources, factories, mills, railroads, etc.) into collective means of production. 2. The organization and management of industry by the working class. 3. The establishment, as speedily as possible, of production for use instead of production for profit. VANCOUVER LOCAL tfO. 1 LIBRARY HEADQUARTERS SOCIALIST HALL, N.E. cor. PENDER & DUNLEVY, VANCOUVER Economios, Philosophy, History, Biology, etc., etc. The best works o nthe above subjects by the greatest writers of the last century: Marx, Engels, Dietzgen, Labriola, Lafargue, Darwin, Huxley, Benjamin Kidd, and many others. Most oi the works in this Library cannot be found in any other in the city, not even in the Carnegie Library. Membership per annum: Fifty cents. Socialist Party of Canada MANIFESTO With introduction written specially by the author of the original. Whole work revised and re-cast. Now Ready. $6.00 PER 100, EXPRESSAGE PAID. :'|PAMPHLETS . IB |§|y Issued by the DOMINION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (Prices include Express Charges) (3) WAGE-WORKER AND FARMER (Pilkington) Price—Per 100, $4.50; Per Dozen, 55 cents; per Copy, 10 cents. (6) WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? Hardenburg) Price—Per 100, $5.'50; Per Dozen, 70 cents; per Copy, 10 cents. Propaganda leetini Vancouver Local No. 1 S. P. of C. EVERY; SUNDAY, 8 pm. REX THEATRE, Hastings Street. ..BoOSt the /||;'-; Western Clarion I
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