In this connection it should be said that the railroads pad their “operating expenses” outrageously to deceive their employes and the general public, and their reports can be shown to be full of duplicity and fraud. They are not required to itemize their “operating expenses” in their reports to the interstate commerce commission; this they only do in the reports of the directors to the stockholders, and an examination of these will disclose the swindle and show how much reliance can be placed in the public reports of private grafters. * * * * * Mr. Railway Slave, to resume our interview, you are not in the same class with the “Jim” Hills of the railroads. You don’t visit their homes; nor they at yours. You don’t ride in their private cars and yachts and automobiles. Your wives don’t wear the same kind of clothes and jewelry and move in the same circle with theirs. You don’t join them in their luxuriant travels to Europe when they are received by the crowned heads and other parasites and given a private audience by the pope. You stay at home and sweat and suffer to foot all the bills; they do all the rest. To sum up: They are in the capitalist class; you in the working class. They are masters; you slaves. They fleece and pluck; you furnish the wool and feathers. * * * * * That is the basis of the class struggle. Upon that basis you have got to organize and fight before you can move an inch toward freedom. You have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same political party and _strike and vote together_, and the hour you do that, the world is yours. The railroads will oppose this; they want to keep you divided and at their mercy. Your grand officers will oppose it; they want to keep you divided and continue to draw their salaries. When you have a little time figure out the amount annually paid to the grand officers of the railway unions in salaries and expenses, and you will be amazed; you will also understand why railroad employes will never get together as long as their grand officers can prevent it. By the way, why do you persist in calling your officers “Grand Chiefs” and “Grand Masters”? Are they “grand” because you are petty? The working class, the rank and file, are _grander_ than all the labor leaders, good and bad, that ever lived. A “Master” implies slaves. It is bad enough to be slaves without glorying in it. A “Master” is bad enough; a “Grand Master” is the limit, especially if the title is voluntarily conferred by the slaves. There was a time when I did not realize this and many other things I now do. The difference is that I have learned to think and can now see these things as they are. * * * * * _The capitalist class! The working class! The class struggle!_ These are the supreme economic and political facts of this day and the precise terms that express them.