have to speculate upon, and absorb the labor-product of others.
With the accumulation of individual wealth, the greed and power of the propertied grows. They use all the means for competing among themselves for the robbery of the people. In this struggle, generally, the less-propertied (middle class) are overcome, while the great capitalists, par excellence, swell their wealth enormously, concentrate entire branches of production, as well as trade and intercommunication, into their hands, and develop into monopolists. The increase of products, accompanied by simultaneous decrease of the average income of the working mass of the people, leads to so-called "business" and "commercial" crises, when the misery of the wage-workers is forced to the extreme.
For illustration, the last census of the United States shows that after deducting the cost of raw material, interest, rents, risks, etc., the propertied class have absorbed—i.e., stolen—more than five-eighths of all products, leaving scarcely three-eighths to the producers. The propertied class, being scarcely one-tenth of our population, and in spite of their luxury and extravagance, unable to consume their enormous "profits," and the producers, unable to consume more than they receive,—three-eighths,—so-called "over-productions" must necessarily take place. The terrible results of panics are well known.
The increasing eradication of working forces from the productive process, annually increases the percentage of the propertyless population, which becomes pauperized, and is driven to "crime," vagabondage, prostitution, suicide, starvation, and general depravity. This system is unjust, insane, and murderous. It is therefore necessary to totally destroy it with and by all means, and with the greatest energy on the part of every one who suffers by it, and who does not want to be made culpable for its continued existence by their inactivity.
Agitation for the purpose of organization; organization for the purpose of rebellion. In these few words the ways are marked, which the workers must take if they want to be rid of their chains, as the economic condition is the same in all coun-
