SOCIAL CONFLICTS AND PEACE.

Evening Star, Issue 19665, 19 September 1927, Page 3

SOCIAL CONFLICTS AND PEACE.

TO TUii EDITOR. Sir,.—Nearly two weeks pass bclorc the Welfare League finds a reply. Js it giving your readers time to iorget previous letters in order to Jumble up matters!' 1 However. I. will deal briefly with its points in order. The league does not admit the existence ot the class struggle. Well, on the one side we find the capitalist class, which owns and controls the means ot production, whose -interest in same is to employ labor.at the cheapest rale, get the best volume of production, and sell the product at the best price, in the process getting all it can out ot labor,; which it calls profit. On the other side wo find those who, having no share in the means of production, must find employment; consequently their outlook is to get the highest rate of wages, greatest amount of leisure, and in general the best conditions possible, so that these opposing class interests frequently come into violent con Hid.. iVo find the struggle expressed in the industrial field with employers’ federations and trade unions, and in the political field with the capitalist party and the workers’ party, each anxious to obtain and hold power in the interests of its class. Will the league be kind enough to show mo where 1 am wrong in that, and also fell me how it came to the conclusion that there is no class struggle? What 1 did with the “ big stick ” idea was to show the league that it was used by both sides, while the league, complaining only of the workers using it, told where its sympathies rest. Now, our attitude on war is quite clear. We oppose it because it means the slaying of the workers in the interests of the various capitalist groups, while the economic conflict outlined above is between the exploiter and the exploited, and wo must take our side. regard to the" State question, X think your

readers will sec that any iog which exists encircles the league’s reasoning. JJy its own Quotation of me it will see 1 said “ society,” not the State,_ is cleft in two. The class in power, which controls the machinery and institutions of government and policy, which moves the Army and Navy at will,_ controls the workers and regulates their wages, is the State. Lastly, 1 would remind the league that the Russian workers had important things to look to beiorc motor cars. To go from Capitalism to Socialism is more than a month’s work. There were the ravages of war to re-; pair, coupled with the allied ring of steel and blockade and arming of exTsarists, which’ lasted for no short period. fn conclusion, it is ahsuid for the league to expect 'peace in industry while under Capitalism the exploiter has the power to exploit.—l am, etc.. D.C. September 17.