On the Machinery of Slavery 1919

Says World Is in a Devil of a Fix as a Result of the System. Present Day Society Is Based on the Crime of Human Slavery.

E. T. Kingsley was as unequivocal as ever on Sunday night, in his insistence on the essentially vicious nature and function of the machinery of capitalism, and its utter futility and impossibility in any civilization not based on human slavery. So much so that Chairman Lestor was able at the close to put it thus: “When we capture the means of wealth production, we shall be as well off as a mule which has captured his harness.”

Comrade Kingsley began characteristically by remarking that the world was indeed “in a devil of a fix.” (Laughter.) He added that he did not believe that any man or set of men, living either now or in the past, were responsible for it. It was the logical result of the growth and development of a system based on one fundamental crime—human slavery; And he did not doubt that the inception also of that system was due to causes; certain habits of living, certain lines of conduct, had led to a point where every institution had been made to conform to its requirements, and bring it to the climax of its growth.

A civilization based on a fundamental crime could not be of very long duration. This system, indeed, had probably existed for 10,000 years or more; but that was “a mere bagatelle” in the life of the human race, since even in the cave of the stone-age man there had been found the relics of a period estimated at 50,000 years.

Today they were supposed to have the most powerful machinery of production ever known, with the amount of labor required so small as to be hardly worth mentioning. Yet the people lived in privation and distress. If they were reasoning animals, of which he sometimes had his doubts (laughter), it was up to them to use their reasoning faculties and find out what was the matter with them. They were told they were free; yet they were exploited every day of their lives, having to work for somebody else.

They were told also that they were paid for what they did. That was a positive lie. Commodities were consumed as fast as they were produced; no payment, therefore, was possible, since there was nothing wherewith payment could be made. Every bond, deed, mortgage, and the like, was a “promise to pay” that could not be paid.

A prominent writer had just stated that in times of peace a great mass of labor was engaged in producing the superfluities of peace, and in times of war the superfluities of war. The speaker maintained that these “superfluities of peace” were simply the means of solidifying ruling class power; the “superfluities of war” amounted to the same thing. All was made to subserve the great ruling class scheme of world trade and commerce.

It was now stated that not more than one in ten of the producers in America were engaged in the production of the essentials of life; the speaker himself had not gone further than to quote the official dictum of the Bureau of Commerce at Washington, which placed the figure at one in five. Right there, they had the cause of all this turmoil and unrest and chaos and confusion. While one was producing the essentials, the other four were doing nothing except rendering ruling class service; meanwhile they had to work as hard as the one who maintained them. All were alike exploited by the ruling class.

There must be slaves, for trade and commerce to be carried on; conversely, while there were slaves, there must be trade and commerce to keep them employed. The greater the trade and commerce, the greater the exploitation. In ancient empires, trade and commerce did not attain very large proportions, everything being done by hand. A pyramid, which then took 20 years to build, could now be turned out in 48 hours. (Laughter.) No more of the essentials, however, were produced now than then, but a greater amount of ruling class production.

Within the last century and a half, with the introduction of the steam engine, the volume of exploitation had increased by leaps and bounds. Essential production had been forced on fewer and fewer workers, and more of them released for ruling class production. In the United States, three and a half million were engaged in transportation—“hauling commodities from where the slaves produced them and putting them where those slaves can never get them again.” (Laughter.) That and the great factory system had resulted in this enormous enlargement of the ruling class empire of material things. How could there be any solution except the tearing down of that scheme of trade and commerce, and bringing back the workers to the production of the essential things of life? “Is there any use tinkering with the fool machinery of capitalism?” The whole thing was based upon a crime and an impossibility; for slavery was an impossibility and could not continue.

The whole shee-bang was going up in bankruptcy; the U.S. would join the bankrupt crowd within the next two years. It had come to a point where they found they must lend other nations money, “so that they can buy our goods and pay cash.” (Laughter.) Commodities were all consumed, leaving only “tracks” behind them—on pieces of paper! These were passed round, again and again, as promises to pay, from hand to hand, but the same amount of debt existed as before; the debt of the world was not one penny less. “You cannot get rid of the stuff except by one route; and I hardly dare mention that, because it’s almost a crime in Canada to mention Bolshevism.” (Applause.)

The speaker ridiculed the outcry about profiteers, declaring it “just as honest, and just as legitimate to take a million per cent profit, as to take one.” (Applause.) The 1700 million bushel wheat crop of the United States was all gone within the year, except about a week’s supply. “If they hadn’t accumulated the figures on their bank books, wouldn’t it have been eaten up just the same? What difference does it make to you what profit they make? If they didn’t make any, you wouldn’t get any more to eat. All that talk about the profiteer being the fellow that hurts you is all bunk.”

It was the four persons out of five producing useless things, the parasitic labor of the cities, that was eating the heart out of the producers of essential things. In the European cities, the people were going absolutely to exterminate themselves; their frenzy would have to run its course. The cities would go down and out, as they had done in former ages; those on this continent would follow suit. The city must resolve itself again into smaller centres of population. The essential things of life were few and easily obtained. The idea of organising “along industrial and political lines,” to avoid the impending disaster, was a “pipe dream.” Disaster could only be avoided by joint action of the farmers and city workers, and the return of the workers to production for their own sustenance instead of trade and commerce.