“On Labour and Its Economies. 1908” in “Class Warrior”
On Labour and Its Economies 1908
Report of a speech delivered by Kingsley at a Socialist Party of Canada meeting on the topic of “Labour and Its Economies” in Oliver’s Hall, Lethbridge, Alberta, 24 August 1908, at the end of Kingsley’s cross-Canada tour.
Socialists Will Surely Come to Power in British Columbia: That Was the Prediction of E. T. Kingsley in Addressing a Mass Meeting at Oliver’s Hall Last Night—Value of the Wage Earners—Workers Are Slaves, He Says
Last night, E. T. Kingsley, editor of the Western Clarion and Socialist candidate for Vancouver, B.C., delivered an address on “Labor and its Economies.”
Oliver’s Hall was comfortably filled at 8:30 when Jas. Barclay took the chair and introduced Mr. Kingsley, who said the chairman, had devoted his life’s labor on behalf of labor.
In opening, Mr. Kingsley called attention to a most remarkable state of affairs that existed in all history, namely, misery and distress among the working classes. The resources of the earth had not yet been touched upon. Fully one-quarter of the useful class have been idle for the last six months, and with the winter months approaching the workers were up against a very serious proposition.
Today every revenue was controlled by the capitalist class and could be used for one purpose—the benefit of the capitalist. Capital was the resources of the earth when these things were making a profit.
He instanced a factory fully equipped to carry on the production of cloth. A lock was put on the door and the factory closed down. It is then useless. Assuming that this factory unlocks the gates, they call upon the working classes to get jobs, and when the process of motion is started the owners begin to start to make profit. If the profit is made out of these men they are deprived of what they make if the mills do not work.
The speaker referred to land in Lethbridge being valuable. Let the working people leave and what did these land values mean. The coal and value of the real estate is the value of the working man. Was the capitalist aware the workers possessed so much value. If the owner wanted a four legged mule he had to pay $200 for it, but if he wanted a two-legged animal he got him for nothing.
Referring to the growth of wheat in this country, Mr. Kingsley stated amidst much laughter, that a few weeks ago Mr. Whyte, the grand mogul of the C.P.R. came out to “look over his ranch.” He was merely looking over what the C.P.R. would make.
He heard considerable talk about a Conservative going around with his picture machine, telling of the vast resources of the West.
“How does it happen,” asked the speaker, “that profit can be made out of labor? Suppose that as a result that the average laborer made only the equivalent of his keep, no man can make a profit out of it.”
In sketching the evolution of threshing, he said he had seen this grow from the antediluvian stage to the new method, and explained the doing away with labor as inventions increased. He stated according to the advance of machinery that the farmer was just as badly off now as he was before those inventions arose.
What are the instruments of production? The working people, the tools, the resources, of the earth, are. This was the system which confronted the working men just now. By virtue of the fact that the capitalist owned the production, they own the working classes.
Six weeks ago, the speaker saw a side track half a mile long, with engines that had not turned a wheel for six months, and had seen tracks a mile long when down east with weeds and grass growing through the wheels, and this right in the midst of the busy season.
This meant that a quarter of the working class in this western country were out of work.
If there was any word in the English language that should be eliminated it should be the word “work.” Who did work? Horses, mules, oxen and the two-legged animal.
The doctrine of work has been doctrined into us ever since we were born. Who told us that there was “dignity” in work?
The working classes make all the palaces that are built. Do they live in them? When he saw the Alexandra Hotel in Winnipeg, he asked if the working people stayed there. He was answered—“If they stay there more than one minute they would be locked up.” He thought it peculiar that the men who built it could not afford to stay there and were unable even to look at it.
Coming down east, he met a C.P.R. man and his wife with two or three children. They had been travelling some time and the woman and children looked thoroughly worn out. He got into conversation with them, and asked them if they knew there was a sleeper further back. The man replied that he was aware of the fact, but his pass did not entitle him to that comfort and luxury. The man said he was a Conservative. Mr. Kingsley said he knew he was and he had a good mind to notify the R.N.W.M.P. at the next station that he had escaped from the asylum at New Westminster.
The speaker then mentioned that if they lived in Vancouver, they could get a ride in an automobile if they broke a window—to the quod. We make the jails to lock ourselves in—actually to hold ourselves in subjection.
The working man could not live [in?] the audience who was a politician—whether Republican, Democrat, Liberal or Conservative. These were the names for capital.
A mere handful of people hold the power in this country because we give them the power. The only difference between the two parties was that one was in and the other was out. Whoever comes out they talk about “our Dominion,” “our future” and the workers sit around and think they are talking about us.
The government rests on the franchise. Never did a class exist before that had this legal right in its hands.
What is government—the instrument of the working classes. The government gets this power from the workers. When the workers accomplish what they have now set out to do, the capitalist would be put in his proper place.
If he was a woman, and his husband went to the poll and voted to consent that the chains of slavery should go on, he would take a piece off the bed and “knock his block off.”
Referring to B. C., Mr. Kingsley said the time was not far off when the Socialist party would control that provincial house.
The working men were the most comical class on the earth. When the wage slave became extinct he did not know what they would do for fun.
The Chinks and Japs,1 now that we have taught them industry, are heading us out, and instead of us shipping to them, the tables are turned.
In conclusion, he said—“Remember that you are living under the greatest empire you ever saw; remember you cannot take food unless you pay for it; remember it is unlawful to sleep in the street, box car, or hotel. If you haven’t the price of food, don’t eat. If you haven’t the price of a bed, don’t sleep. Remember the Union Jack and the glorious institution, because they are founded upon the greatest institutions in which we live. But don’t, for heaven’s sake take the power in your own hands and put your men into parliament.”
—“Socialists Will Surely Come to Power in British Columbia,” Lethbridge Herald, 25 Aug. 1908, 1.
1 This racist language was symptomatic of the era and also indicative of Kingsley’s incomplete embrace of a conception of working-class solidarity that would transcend national and ethnocultural boundaries.
We use cookies to analyze our traffic. Please decide if you are willing to accept cookies from our website. You can change this setting anytime in Privacy Settings.