Cause of Poverty.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 32, 13 October 1911, Page 6

Cause of Poverty.

UNDER CAPITALISM;'-DILIGENCE IS THE MOTHER OF HARSj TIMES. ' .■ l ■' v -

Did it ever strike you as being odd that it is the Avorkers, the producers, who are in poverty? It is, though, isn't it? What, then, is the cause of their poverty ?

In years gone by in this fair la*id of ours, the cause of poverty Avas laziness. In those days the Avorker owned the tool Avith Avhich he Aiorked. "r'liat Avhich he produced-avas his. It w&.% .up to him to be diligent, for that meant the more fruits of his labor to be enjoyed.

To-day, hoAAeA r er, the harder a working man works the nearer he brings poverty to his door. The cause of it is that to-day the tool of production, or capital, is a gigantic thing: owned by a capitalist, or a group of capitalists. Things have changed. The Avorker can no longer work'for himself. He must, under the present S3 7 stem, Avork for the capitalist, who allows the worker to keep about one-fifth of Avhat he, the worker, produces.

The productivity of labor and ma- , chinery is to-day so great that the i capitalists cannot, despite the foreign ; markets, use up or get rid of the surplus wealth piling up around them. They then stop production, the factory is closed, th© men are throAvn out, and remain out of Avork starving un- . til the capitalist has somehoAv or other disposed of the surplus, when AAork , starts up again. ' j Thus you can readily see that the i quicker surplus value increases in tbe ! hands of the capitalist the quicker idleness and poverty must confront the Avorkers. Hence the harder the workers work, the faster they are plunged into misery, because the faster they work the taster will the surplus in the ; hands of the capitalists swell- beyond the size that the capitalists can dispose .of. Then comes the shut doAvn. ' The Avorkers, if properly organised in the shop and on the political field, i might control this state of affairs someAvhat, by lessening the hours of labor; but they could by no means prevent it. Socialism, by overthrowing capitalism, can alone prevent what we are to-day suffering from—chronic hard times.—"N.Y. People."