The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 12, 1925, Page 12

7” te a sia dpc Ss be Pad quered. In its struggle to maintain is FALOUS advocates of birth control | its rate of profit and increase its actu- Z organized in the American Birth al profit gained solely from the labor Control League, are enemies of the struggle of the workers of this coun- try to establish for themselves a sane system of society. This reformist, as- sociation, whose charitable sowing of information might seem to assist the workers, betrays its true character in the September issue of its official or- gan, The Birth Control Revue. Composed not of workers, but of idle, middle class and wealthy dab- blers, the Birth Control League is not content with functioning as an ordin- ary charitable organization. <A false system of pseudo-economy is advocat- ed. The absurd theory that unemploy- ment, poverty, war and the ills of pres- ent day society are caused solely be- eause there are too many people in the world is strenuously propagated. HIS theory was advocated by Thomas Robert Malthus, in his book published in 1803 entitled, “Prin- ciples of Population.” It is on Mal- thus’ theories, exploded long ago by Karl Marx, that the Birth Control League bases its propaganda. Mal- thus declared that it was the “tend- ency of population to increase faster than food.” He put forth the proposi- tion that the “population increases in geometic ratio, while food increases in arithmetical ratio.” Even the capitalist minded, so-called economists have had to admit that this formula is false. But the birth control zealots have accepted the es- sence of Malthus’ false doctrines, and have dubbed their philosophy, “Neo- Malthusian,” the name under which the Birth Control League of England functions. In this “Neo-Malthusian” philosophy the Birth Control League retains the theory of Malthus that pov- erty arises from overpopulation. NSTEAD of recognizing that these running sores of capitalism are in- herent in the system of production now prevailing, this league declares that by “agitation, education, organ- igution’and legislation,” all the evils of capitalism can be laid low and cverybody will be happy. In an article entitled, “The Fascisti on Birth Control—An Italian Prob- t-m; a Reply to Count Cippico,” Pro- fassor Erward M. East of Harvard, takes issue with the fascist who at tho Institute of Politics recently held ‘2 Williamstown, Mass., demanded that Italy’s “surplus population” be iilowed to enter America. East re- nties with a statement egually assin- ine. o? Says'-East, “Population tends to ‘ress with irresistable force upon the rieans of subsistence within any giv- en circumscribed unit. This thesis of Malthus has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Under natural con- citions population increase is finally repressed and stabilized by the inten- sity of the struggle for existence.” The growing army of unemployed in Ttaly is becoming too much of a food thing for the Italian capitalists. While an industrial reserve army is an essential requirement for the per- petuation of the capitalist system, the Increase of unemployed in Italy’ has become so sharp that the desperation of the workers is menacing the fas- cist-capitalist rule. The count fears a revolt of the workers against fascism, and would relieve the pressure by transfrring a portion of the sur- plus population to the United States, which, however, has an unemploy- ment problem of its own, UT East does not want Italian im- migration. “We don’t need these people, that is all,” he says. “We produce enough of that quality (“the dregs of the vat”) ourselves.” East’s conclusion is that Italy should prac- tice birth control, as well as all other countries, and all will be well. But those who have studied the present system of production and its history know that with the accumula- tion and centralization of capital, ac- companied as it is by an intensifica- tion of the exploitation of the wage- earners, goes the swelling of the ranks of the unemployed. Capitalism is ever conquering new branches of in- dustry, and concentrating and central- izing its hold on those already con: Ee eT Neen enn of the workers employed, capital is ‘ever increasing the productiveness of labor. Women and cghildren are rushed into the factory to replace the men at a cheaper wage. Hours are lengthened, wages are lowered, ma- chines are made to run faster, and fingers to move more quickly. “In all these cases,” we learn from the analysis of Karl Marx, “The num- ber of laborers falls in proportion to the mass of the means of production worked up by them. It igs a grave error to interpret the phenomena of accumulation by saying that there are now too few, now too many, wage-la- borers.” , With the accumulation of capital, along with technical development of, the means of production, fewer and fewer laborers are used in proportion to the accumulated capital. Thus is explained the cause of the permanent army cf unemployed, not to mention those laid off during crises because the worker is unable to buy Birth Control and Unemployment N the same vein, another article in this issue, whose very title, “Birth Control a Protection to the State,” is significant, states, “In a considerable number of cases, families, which, if small, would be self-supporting, be- come burdens upon society because too many children are produced.” One of the cardinal points of the birth con- trol advocates is that birth control would raise wages by decreasing the supply of wage earners, The Neo- Malthusians would protect the cap- italist state by directing attention toward useless reform. We learn from Marx that the gen- eral movements of wages are deter- mined by the expansion and contrac- tion of the industrial reserve army. This reserve of unemployed is inevit- able because it is necessary for capi- talist production. The wages are not determined by the absolute number of the workers, but by the proportion between the industrial reserve army and ihe working populai‘on. The un- employed army decreases or increases according to the needs of capitalist production, some of the reserve popula- Material Wanted on History and Develop- ment of Communist Movement in America. Research Department, Workers Party of America. te All Members and Units of the Workers Party: The Research Department has been set the task of gathering historical data and material on the development of the Communist movement in America, with especial attention to the period beginning 1919. This work requires the active assistance of every comrade and sympathizer who has possession of, or knowledge of, the material needed. What is needed will include files of the various official organs published by the different groups, convention minutes, executive committee records, leaflets, lists of committee members, photographs, correspondence, news- paper and magazine articles dealing with the development of the move- ment and its organizational problems, books and pamphlets (published by Communists, or dealing “with our moyement by outsiders), court re- cords of trials, etc. Every one who has’ such material /ist and address and accompanied with a let- ter stating whether the material is donated or merely loaned. Those who have not such material, but know of its @xist - and location, are re- quested to write full information in the matter. The eo-operation of every Commun- sympathizer will prove of is requested to send it in to the Re-| great value to the movement. search Department, Workers Party of America, 1118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, with each package clearly marked with the sender’s name and Fraternally yours, . Research Department of Workers Party of America, Earl R. Browder, Director. back the product of his toil, and over- production ensues. 3 F TH the development of ever big- ger machinery, the increasing division and specialization of labor, and the constant speeding up of the worker, more raw material is turned out in finished products by each work- er, less workers are needed and un- employment increases. Marx explains that capitalist pro- duction follows the course of cycles, marked by periods of average produc- tion, production at high pressure, then crises, followed by stagnation. This necessitates for.the capitalist a con- stant reserve army of unemployed, which is absorbed into industry to a greater or less degree according to the course of the cycle. “The whole form of the move- ment of modern industry depends up- on the constant transformation of a part of the laboring population into unemployed or half-employed hands. Capitalist industry can by no means content itself with the quantity of disposable labor power which the nat- ural increase of population yields. It requires for its free play an indus- trial reserve army independent of these natural limits,” says Marx, The army of the unemployed will be with us until the workers take over the industries and the govern mental power which protects capital- ism and run them for their own use. Yet Margaret Sanger, chief of the Birth Control League, writes a special article to extol the nonsense of the Harvard professor whom she welcomes into the ranks of the advo- cates of her pet cure-all. “He has demonstrated,” she says, “how close- ly bound up with the great questions of international policy are the pro- foundly personal problems of contra- ception and birth control.” tion being now absorbed into the in- dustry and now set free, according to the period in the cycle of production. Reduce the population by birth con- trol and the capitalist mode of pro- duction immediately would set to work to build up a new reserve army by further intensifying production and improving the machinery and other means of production. Those who favor birth control as a cure for unemployment and _ small wages try to say that capitalist pro- duction is dependent on the absolute variation of the population. Where- as the truth is that the demand and supply of labor is regulated by the alternate expansion and contraction of capital, as Marx points ‘out. Legos reserve army of unemployed also tends to keep down the wages of those working. It places the workers at the convenience of the capitalists. “The folly is patent of the economic By Karl Reeve wisdom that preaches to the laborers the accomodation of their numbers to the requirements of capital,” says Marx. “The mechanism of capitalist production and accumulation con- stantly effects this adjustment. The first word of this adaptation is the creation of a relative surplus popula- tion, or industrial reserve army. Its last word is the misery of constantly extending strata of the active army of labor, and the dead weight of pauper- ism.” But Margaret Sanger in her euolgy of East, declares birth control to be a panacea not only for unemployment and low wages, but for war. “Italy should encourage families to restrict their numbers in accordance with op- portunity,” says Mrs, Sanger. “This as we, all know, is the only safe ave- nue to national, peace, prosperity, and the progress of civilizaton.” The fas- : cist count,.she says, has hinted that Italy will provoke a war in order to» unload her surplus population. It is not at all impossible that Italy will become entangled in a world war, but not for the benefit of her indus- trial reserve army. Italy is in dire need of colonies, in order to increase the rate of exploitation, to open up new markets, to extend the sphere of influence of her capitalists, to secure a reservoir of cheap labor, and in other ways benefit the Italian imperi- alists. HERE this birth control “econom- ics” leads is demonstrated in the book review columns of this issue of the Birth Control Review. The review of J. Swinburne’s book, “Population and the Social Problem,” states, “J. Swin- burne vightly regards the stress of population as the fundamental fact in sociology. If civilization is over- thrown, the writer believes, it will be swept away ‘by ignorant, hungry peo- ple acting under the keen stress of population pressure, as has happened over and over again in the past; the differencé being that-the-hungry mass- es will not be outside peoples, but our own proletariat and poorer classes in- flamed by socialists and other dema- gogues.’”’ Birth control may be advocated as a measure of public health and as a personal convenience. But when a group builds on birth control a false economy which aims to perpetuate the capitalist system, to confuse the workers as to the true cause of their misery, to combat the demand of the working class for power, then that group takes jts place as an aid to the exploiters who are keeping the. work- ers in a state of poverty, and as an enemy of the working class. Teamsters and Chauffeurs to Meet SEATTLE—(FP)—Two hundred and fifty delegates are expected at the convention in Seattle of the Intl. Bro- of Teamsters, Chauffeurs and Helpers, which opens Sept. 14. No opposition is expected in the reelection of Pres. Daniel Tobin, who is also treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and Secy. Thomas L. Hughes. The union is one of the most influential in the A. F. of L. and jealously guards its jurisdiction. At the El Paso conven- tion in 1924 the teamsters were award- ed the express drivers whom the Rail- way Clerks had organized and now the union is disputing with the streetcar men the jurisdiction over motorbus drivers. A SONG OF THE FACTORY. The trees were white with blossoms, the meadows were broad and fair; And the care free birds made music for the children that gathered there. But a man had need of the meadows; his walis and chimneys sprang From among the swaying branches where the thrush and robin sang. And set them to work to earn his wealth, for children are many and cheap. They crouch all day by the spindles, wizened and wan and old. They have given their youth to a master who has minted it Into gold. No longer they joyously listen to a No longer their happy laughter rings out the whole day tong. No longer they roam the meadows like wandering gypsy bands, For the man is growing richer by the work of their puny hands. \