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Class Warrior: On the Labour Problem. 1903

Class Warrior
On the Labour Problem. 1903

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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Foreword
  3. Introduction
  4. Part I: Selected Writings of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1900   On Washington State’s Primary Law
    2. 1903   On Political Action
      1. On Reformism and Electoral “Fusion”
      2. On Trade Unions
    3. 1905   On the Single Tax
      1. On a Journey to Seattle
    4. 1906   On the Arrest of US Labour Leaders and State Power
    5. 1908   On the Socialist Movement and Travels across Canada
    6. 1909   On War
      1. On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    7. 1911   On Property
      1. On the Workers’ Awakening
      2. On Economic Organization
      3. On the Capitalist State
    8. 1914   On the Causes of the First World War
    9. 1916   On Carnage
    10. 1917   On Slavery and War
      1. On War Finance
      2. On the War Effort
    11. 1918   On the Bolshevik Revolution
      1. On Capitalism Getting Rich Quick
    12. 1919   On Control of the State by the Working Class
      1. On Reconstruction
      2. On Collaboration between Labour and Capital
      3. On Wealth
      4. On Gold
      5. On Class War
      6. On the Paris Peace Conference
      7. On Capitalist Civilization
    13. 1921   On the 1921 Canadian Parliamentary Election
  5. Part II: Selected Speeches of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1895   On the Aims of Socialism
    2. 1896   On Socialism and the Economy
    3. 1899   On American Imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines
    4. 1903   On the Labour Problem
      1. On the Political Organization of Miners in Cumberland
      2. On Stirring the Emotions of His Audience
      3. On Wages, Profit, and Capital
      4. On the 1903 British Columbia Election
    5. 1905   On the 1905 Russian Revolution
      1. On Workers and Rockefeller
      2. On the Mission of the Working Class
    6. 1906   On the Paris Commune
    7. 1908   On Labour and Its Economies
      1. On the Working Class Using Clubs If Necessary
      2. On Working-Class Political Power
    8. 1912   On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    9. 1913   On the Vancouver Island Miners’ Strike
    10. 1914   On the Komagata Maru Incident
    11. 1917   On Conscription
      1. On Working-Class Opposition to Conscription
      2. On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws
      3. On the 1917 Conscription Election
    12. 1918   On the Formation of the Federated Labor Party
      1. On Laws
      2. On Reconstruction
      3. On the Armistice and Postwar Moment
      4. On Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War
    13. 1919   On Lenin and Trotsky
      1. On the Belfast General Strike, Unemployment, and the Postwar Challenge to Capitalism
      2. On the Bolshevik Revolution
      3. On the One Big Union
      4. On the Class Struggle
      5. On the Machine
      6. On Capitalism
      7. On the Defeat of the Winnipeg General Strike
      8. On the Machinery of Slavery
      9. On Civilization
    14. 1920   On Mechanization of Production
      1. On the Paris Commune
      2. On the Collapse of Civilization
      3. On the Bankruptcy of the Capitalist System
  6. Part III: The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery
    1. 1916   The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery: Showing How the Chattel Slaves of Pagan Times Have Been Transformed into the Capitalist Property of To-day
  7. Part IV: On the World Situation
    1. 1919   On the World Situation
  8. Appendix
  9. Kingsley’s Speeches
  10. Index

On the Labour Problem 1903

Report of a speech on the topic of “The Labour Problem” at a meeting organized by the Socialist Party of British Columbia’s Victoria Local, in the Victoria Labour Hall, 1 February 1903.

The Labor Problem

Lecture by E. T. Kingsley at Meeting of Socialist Party

Labor hall was filled to overflowing last evening at the regular meeting of the Socialist party, when a lecture on “The Labor Problem” was delivered by E. T. Kingsley, of Nanaimo. After a song from the Socialist song book, a recitation from Mr. Oliver, and a few introductory remarks from Chairman J. C. Walters, the lecturer introduced his subject by going back to the beginning of man’s history, and showed how he evolved from his primitive state to the so-called “civilization” of the present day. He showed how empires grew and fattened at the expense of the chattel slave, how the Babylonian, Grecian and Roman empires thrived, and exerted their lordly authority always at the expense of the worker. After chattel slavery came the feudal system where they worked a part of the time for their feudal lord and a part for themselves. When, however, the feudal King George III, attempted to exercise his authority on this Western continent the oppressed colonists soon gave him to understand they were going to run their country their own way. Society has evolved since then to the present wage system which the Socialist party is organized to abolish. In the earlier part of this century the wage earner was little known. In the private ownership of all the means of wealth production lies the root of all the misery of the worker.

What shall be done with the tools of wealth-production was the question the wealth-producer had to solve. To own the tools collectively lay his only salvation. This is forced upon the workers owing to the social character of the tools of wealth-production. Being social in character they must be owned socially or collectively in order that those who operate them may enjoy their benefits. The Socialist party had the key to the situation, and was organized into a class conscious political body all over the civilized world. The Victoria Socialists were affiliated with the other comrades at Nanaimo, Seattle, New York or Berlin, knowing no national bounds.

At the conclusion of the lecture, a song was very ably rendered by Miss Amy Kneeshaw, after which questions were asked the speaker.

Next Sunday evening G. Weston Wrigley will speak on “The Evils of Government Ownership.”

—Untitled, Victoria Daily Times, 31 Jan. 1903, 5; “The Labor Problem,” Victoria Daily Times, 2 Feb. 1903, 3.

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