On Wages, Profit, and Capital 1903

Wages, Profit and Capital Analysed by Organiser Kingsley, at Phoenix

Phoenix, B. C., Sept 16.—The Labor Day parade of the Phoenix unions having marched up to the C. P. R. station to meet the Grand Forks excursion train returned, headed by the band, and finally halted in front of Morrin & Thompson’s store, where a stand had been erected for the speakers of the occasion.

Promptly on their arrival Organiser E. T. Kingsley mounted the stand and delivered the following address:

Fellow Workers,—This day has been set aside as Labor Day in the Dominion of Canada as well as in the United States of America. Upon this day we gather together for the purpose of social intercourse and to engage in different sports; but I believe the day is not well spent if we do not devote a little of our own time to the consideration of those PROBLEMS WHICH ARE CONFRONTING THE WHOLE OF SOCIETY to-day, and which the working class alone can solve.

There are two ways in human society by which you can make a living, and do it legally. You may live by profit, or you may live by labor.

I want to explain to you why certain men can live by profits, while on the other hand, the great class to which you belong—the working class—STRUGGLE FROM DAY TO DAY to earn a living by labor.

I want to define to you the meaning of profit and wages, of capitalist and wage-earner.

Human society is to-day divided into two classes—the capitalist class which LIVES BY PROFITS, and the working class, which LIVES BY LABOR.

Now let us clearly understand the meaning of the term capital. It is a term applied to wealth, under certain circumstances. Its function is to bring profits to its owner, the capitalist.

Suppose I have a factory, fully equipped with all the necessary machinery. It stands idle. It is not capital. It does not function as capital, by bringing profit to its owner.

Now I transform that factory into capital by calling on the workingmen to operate it. In other words, I give them a job, agreeing to pay them a certain wage. They set its wheels into motion, and the raw material is converted into the finished article.

Let us assume it to be a textile mill. All of the cloth turned out belongs to me because I own the mill. I convert this into cash, and OUT OF THE MEN’S WAGES ARE PAID. I keep the balance; this comes to me as profit.

Under the circumstances I am a capitalist: the factory is my capital.

Now, let us assume the average product of the workers in the factory to be five dollars a day each, and the wages two dollars. After the wage is paid I have three dollars left, which represents the unpaid wages of the workers, inasmuch as they produced the total five dollars.

It is by this process that all capital has sprung up, and as it piles up from day to day it spreads out into other and more gigantic industrial undertakings.

Take the great United States Steel Company, of ONE BILLION, THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS CAPITALISATION. There stands at the beck and call of that corporation 600,000 wages slaves, because THE COMPANY OWNS 600,000 JOBS. These 600,000 wage slaves can produce enough iron and steel to pay their own wages and the normal rate of capital profit on one billion three hundred million dollars.

Now, suppose these 600,000 men walk away, and that no others can be induced to take their places. What is the plant of the steel corporation worth? Not one solitary cent. The value is ALL in the hide and carcass of the men who have walked away.

The very moment the men return and begin to operate the plant once more, why, lo and behold, it is again worth a billion three hundred million dollars.

CAPITALIST PROPERTY IS MERELY THE OWNERSHIP OF THE WORKING PEOPLE, the ownership of the means of wealth production being the title deeds to this human property.

Why do you men work for wages? Because you have no ownership in the factories, mills, mines and so forth, and are therefore compelled to go to the capitalist owning these things and ask for a job. You must have a job or you can’t live. The job is the one thing you worship, and if you have a steady job you are the envy of all other workingmen, especially of those who have no job at all.

YOUR STOMACH IS A MASTER WHO RULES OVER YOU WITH A ROD OF IRON.

It says “food,” you must get it or die. In order to legally obtain it, you must sell your labor power; that is, you must get a job; in short, you are two-legged peddlers of labor power. (Great merriment and applause.)

You go to the man who controls a certain industry and you ask him if he wants some labor power. He probably says yes, and you arrive at some conclusion as to its price. You say “What do you pay?” The boss says, probably, “$2 a day.” WHERE IS THE MAN WHO SAYS THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING MAN AND HIS EMPLOYER ARE IDENTICAL?

Point him out to me. I want to see him. I understand that he was, at one time, a dweller in the Boundary district, but has left for parts unknown. If their interests are identical, why does not the boss offer you $10 a day? Surely if your interests and those of the capitalist are identical he would do so. It is more to your interest that you get $10 a day than $2. Then, why does he not say ten, fifteen, twenty dollars, and so forth? Because the interests of the buyer and those of the seller are not identical under any circumstances whatever. THE GREATER THE WAGES, THE LESS THE PROFIT; THE GREATER THE PROFIT THE LESS THE WAGE.

Suppose the average output per man in a given industry to be five dollars per day, and the wage two dollars. This would leave three dollars profit. Increase the wages to two dollars and a-half, and you cut the profits accordingly and vice versa.

If the market is over stocked with labor, down will go the wages in spite of everything you can do.

Suppose we had a market, say, for a million pair of shoes, but, instead of one million you had a million five hundred thousand to put on the market.

The price would immediately go down, the market would be overstocked.

Now, let me say this. Just so long as you are in a position where your LABOR POWER IS A COMMODITY IN THE MARKET, just so long will you be subject to the economic law which governs the price of all commodities—THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

You may buck your head up against an economic law until you are black in the face, but your wages will go down in spite of you.

Now, I want to show you how you may put yourself beyond the reach of this economic law. It is necessary for you, AS A CLASS, TO ACQUIRE THE OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL of the means of wealth production—the factories, mills, railways, mines, etc.

You already operate these instruments of wealth production collectively. You must assume control collectively, to the end that the working class, may stand master of the products of their own labor.

The vast stream of profits now accruing to the capitalist class will then be turned into the pockets of the worker, and the capitalist themselves compelled to join the ranks of the useful.

To effect this purpose, requires INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ACTION along the lines of the material interests of the working class. To conquer the public powers for the working class is the first step in the process.

This can only be accomplished by affiliation with the political party which stands for working class interests alone. Such a party must stand unalterably opposed to the interests of the capitalists.

Not a man will be elected to the provincial legislature on the third of next month, except he be elected by working class votes.

Let us see to it that not a man is returned to that house without THE MANDATE OF LABOR IN HIS HAND.

That mandate is to apply this test to all questions of legislation: “will this measure benefit the working class? If so, approve it; if not, condemn it.”

The essence of slavery is this: That the master commands the services of the slave and appropriates the profit of his labor. YOU WHO WORK FOR WAGES ARE SLAVES. If you would be free you must, at the ballot-box, wrest from the hands of the capitalists their control of the powers of the state, and, by legal enactment convert the instruments of wealth production from capitalist property into collective property of the working class.

“Remember it is only when labor writes the law that labor will be free.”

The speaker was listened to with marked attention; too marked to admit of much applause, and this, notwithstanding the fact that it rained during the speech. The audience were, however, too much absorbed to notice the wet.