The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

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ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
69
poison upon me and upon my colleagues. For two months they have sat here
and spat like adders the vile poison of their tongues, and if men could have
been placed in a mental inquisition and tortured to death, these men would
have s~cceeded here now, for we have been villifieu, misrepresented, held in
10athsoQle contempt, without a chance to speak or contradict a wod. Therefore,
.if I show emotion, it is because of this, and if my comrades and colleague!!
with me here have spoken in such strains as these, it is because of this. Pardon
ue. Look at it from the right standpoint. What is this labor question?
It is not a question of emotion j the labor question is not a question of sentiment;
it is not a religious matter j it is not a political problem; no, sir, it is a
stern economic fact, a stubborn and immovable fact. It has, it is true, its
emotional phase; it has its sentimental, religious, political aspects; but the
sum total of this question is the bread and butter question, the how and why
we shall live and earn our daily bread. This is the labor movement.· It has
a scientific basis. It is founded upon fact, and I have been to.considerable
pains in my researches of well known and distinguished authors on this question
to collect and present,to you briefly what this question is and what it
springs from. I will first explain to you briefly what capital is:
Capital is the stored up and accumulated surplus of past labor; capital is
the product of labor. The function of capital is to appropriate or confiscate for
its own use and benefit the "surplus" labor product of the wage laborer. The
capitalistic system originated in the forcible seizure of natural opportunities
and rights by a few, and then converting those things into special privileges
which have since become vested rights, formally entrenched behind the bulwarks
of statute law and government. Capital ~ould not exist unless there
also existed a majority class who were propertyless, that is, without capital, a
class whose only mode of existe.nce is the selling of their labor to capitalists.
Capitalism is maintained, fostered, anG perpetuated by law; in fact, capital is
law-statute law-and law is capital. Now, briefly stated, for I will not take
your time but for a moment, what is labor? Labor is a commodity and wages
is the price paid for it. The owner of this commodity sells it, that is, himself,
to the owner of capital in order to live. Labor is the expression of energy, the
PO\\ er of the laborer's life. This energy or power he must sell to another person
in order to live. It is his only means of existence. He works to live, but
his work is not.simply a part of his life; it is the sacrifice of it. His labor is
a commodity which under the guise of free labor he is forced by necessity to
hand over to another party. The whole of the wage laborer's activity is not
. the product of his labor-far from it. The silk he weaves, the. palace he
builds, the ores he digs from out the mines