Social problems; Socialism -- United States; Working class -- United States
It is not nice to be a scab. Not only is it not in good social taste and
comradeship, but, from the standpoint of food and shelter, it is bad
business policy. Nobody desires to scab, to give most for least. The
ambition of every individual is quite the opposite, to give least for
most; and, as a result, living in a tooth-and-nail society, battle royal
is waged by the ambitious individuals. But in its most salient aspect,
that of the struggle over the division of the joint product, it is no
longer a battle between individuals, but between groups of individuals.
Capital and labor apply themselves to raw material, make something useful
out of it, add to its value, and then proceed to quarrel over the
division of the added value. Neither cares to give most for least. Each
is intent on giving less than the other and on receiving more.
Labor combines into its unions, capital into partnerships, associations,
corporations, and trusts. A group-struggle is the result, in which the
individuals, as individuals, play no part. The Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners, for instance, serves notice on the Master Builders'
Association that it demands an increase of the wage of its members from
$3.50 a day to $4, and a Saturday half-holiday without pay. This means
that the carpenters are trying to give less for more. Where they
received $21 for six full days, they are endeavoring to get $22 for five
days and a half,--that is, they will work half a day less each week and
receive a dollar more.
Also, they expect the Saturday half-holiday to give work to one
additional man for each eleven previously employed. This last affords a
splendid example of the development of the group idea. In this
particular struggle the individual has no chance at all for life. The
individual carpenter would be crushed like a mote by the Master Builders'
Association, and like a mote the individual master builder would be
crushed by the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
In the group-struggle over the division of the joint product, labor
utilizes the union with its two great weapons, the strike and the
boycott; while capital utilizes the trust and the association, the
weapons of which are the black-list, the lockout, and the scab. The scab
is by far the most formidable weapon of the three. He is the man who
breaks strikes and causes all the trouble. Without him there would be no
trouble, for the strikers are willing to remain out peacefully and
indefinitely so long as other men are not in their places, and so long as
the particular aggregation of capital with which they are fighting is
eating its head off in enforced idleness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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