In a competitive society, where men struggle with one another for food
and shelter, what is more natural than that generosity, when it
diminishes the food and shelter of men other than he who is generous,
should be held an accursed thing? Wise old saws to the contrary, he who
takes from a man's purse takes from his existence. To strike at a man's
food and shelter is to strike at his life; and in a society organized on
a tooth-and-nail basis, such an act, performed though it may be under the
guise of generosity, is none the less menacing and terrible.
It is for this reason that a laborer is so fiercely hostile to another
laborer who offers to work for less pay or longer hours. To hold his
place, (which is to live), he must offset this offer by another equally
liberal, which is equivalent to giving away somewhat from the food and
shelter he enjoys. To sell his day's work for $2, instead of $2.50,
means that he, his wife, and his children will not have so good a roof
over their heads, so warm clothes on their backs, so substantial food in
their stomachs. Meat will be bought less frequently and it will be
tougher and less nutritious, stout new shoes will go less often on the
children's feet, and disease and death will be more imminent in a cheaper
house and neighborhood.
Thus the generous laborer, giving more of a day's work for less return,
(measured in terms of food and shelter), threatens the life of his less
generous brother laborer, and at the best, if he does not destroy that
life, he diminishes it. Whereupon the less generous laborer looks upon
him as an enemy, and, as men are inclined to do in a tooth-and-nail
society, he tries to kill the man who is trying to kill him.
When a striker kills with a brick the man who has taken his place, he has
no sense of wrong-doing. In the deepest holds of his being, though he
does not reason the impulse, he has an ethical sanction. He feels dimly
that he has justification, just as the home-defending Boer felt, though
more sharply, with each bullet he fired at the invading English. Behind
every brick thrown by a striker is the selfish will "to live" of himself,
and the slightly altruistic will "to live" of his family. The family
group came into the world before the State group, and society, being
still on the primitive basis of tooth and nail, the will "to live" of the
State is not so compelling to the striker as is the will "to live" of his
family and himself.
In addition to the use of bricks, clubs, and bullets, the selfish laborer
finds it necessary to express his feelings in speech. Just as the
peaceful country-dweller calls the sea-rover a "pirate," and the stout
burgher calls the man who breaks into his strong-box a "robber," so the
selfish laborer applies the opprobrious epithet a "scab" to the laborer
who takes from him food and shelter by being more generous in the
disposal of his labor power. The sentimental connotation of "scab" is as
terrific as that of "traitor" or "Judas," and a sentimental definition
would be as deep and varied as the human heart. It is far easier to
arrive at what may be called a technical definition, worded in commercial
terms, as, for instance, that _a scab is one who gives more value for the
same price than another_.
The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage
than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a
scab. This generousness on his part is hurtful to his fellow-laborers,
for it compels them to an equal generousness which is not to their
liking, and which gives them less of food and shelter. But a word may be
said for the scab. Just as his act makes his rivals compulsorily
generous, so do they, by fortune of birth and training, make compulsory
his act of generousness. He does not scab because he wants to scab. No
whim of the spirit, no burgeoning of the heart, leads him to give more of
his labor power than they for a certain sum.
It is because he cannot get work on the same terms as they that he is a
scab. There is less work than there are men to do work. This is patent,
else the scab would not loom so large on the labor-market horizon.
Because they are stronger than he, or more skilled, or more energetic, it
is impossible for him to take their places at the same wage. To take
their places he must give more value, must work longer hours or receive a
smaller wage. He does so, and he cannot help it, for his will "to live"
is driving him on as well as they are being driven on by their will "to
live"; and to live he must win food and shelter, which he can do only by
receiving permission to work from some man who owns a bit of land or a
piece of machinery. And to receive permission from this man, he must
make the transaction profitable for him.
Viewed in this light, the scab, who gives more labor power for a certain
price than his fellows, is not so generous after all. He is no more
generous with his energy than the chattel slave and the convict laborer,
who, by the way, are the almost perfect scabs. They give their labor
power for about the minimum possible price. But, within limits, they may
loaf and malinger, and, as scabs, are exceeded by the machine, which
never loafs and malingers and which is the ideally perfect scab.
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.
But both warring groups have reserve weapons. Were it not for the scab,
these weapons would not be brought into play. But the scab takes the
place of the striker, who begins at once to wield a most powerful weapon,
terrorism. The will "to live" of the scab recoils from the menace of
broken bones and violent death. With all due respect to the labor
leaders, who are not to be blamed for volubly asseverating otherwise,
terrorism is a well-defined and eminently successful policy of the labor
unions. It has probably won them more strikes than all the rest of the
weapons in their arsenal. This terrorism, however, must be clearly
understood. It is directed solely against the scab, placing him in such
fear for life and limb as to drive him out of the contest. But when
terrorism gets out of hand and inoffensive non-combatants are injured,
law and order threatened, and property destroyed, it becomes an edged
tool that cuts both ways. This sort of terrorism is sincerely deplored
by the labor leaders, for it has probably lost them as many strikes as
have been lost by any other single cause.
The scab is powerless under terrorism. As a rule, he is not so good nor
gritty a man as the men he is displacing, and he lacks their fighting
organization. He stands in dire need of stiffening and backing. His
employers, the capitalists, draw their two remaining weapons, the
ownership of which is debatable, but which they for the time being happen
to control. These two weapons may be called the political and judicial
machinery of society. When the scab crumples up and is ready to go down
before the fists, bricks, and bullets of the labor group, the capitalist
group puts the police and soldiers into the field, and begins a general
bombardment of injunctions. Victory usually follows, for the labor group
cannot withstand the combined assault of gatling guns and injunctions.
But it has been noted that the ownership of the political and judicial
machinery of society is debatable. In the Titanic struggle over the
division of the joint product, each group reaches out for every available
weapon. Nor are they blinded by the smoke of conflict. They fight their
battles as coolly and collectedly as ever battles were fought on paper.
The capitalist group has long since realized the immense importance of
controlling the political and judicial machinery of society.
Taught by gatlings and injunctions, which have smashed many an otherwise
successful strike, the labor group is beginning to realize that it all
depends upon who is behind and who is before the gatlings and the
injunctions. And he who knows the labor movement knows that there is
slowly growing up and being formulated a clear and definite policy for
the capture of the political and judicial machinery.
This is the terrible spectre which Mr. John Graham Brooks sees looming
portentously over the twentieth century world. No man may boast a more
intimate knowledge of the labor movement than he; and he reiterates again
and again the dangerous likelihood of the whole labor group capturing the
political machinery of society. As he says in his recent book: {6} "It
is not probable that employers can destroy unionism in the United States.
Adroit and desperate attempts will, however, be made, if we mean by
unionism the undisciplined and aggressive fact of vigorous and determined
organizations. If capital should prove too strong in this struggle, the
result is easy to predict. The employers have only to convince organized
labor that it cannot hold its own against the capitalist manager, and the
whole energy that now goes to the union will turn to an aggressive
political socialism. It will not be the harmless sympathy with increased
city and state functions which trade unions already feel; it will become
a turbulent political force bent upon using every weapon of taxation
against the rich."
This struggle not to be a scab, to avoid giving more for less and to
succeed in giving less for more, is more vital than it would appear on
the surface. The capitalist and labor groups are locked together in
desperate battle, and neither side is swayed by moral considerations more
than skin-deep. The labor group hires business agents, lawyers, and
organizers, and is beginning to intimidate legislators by the strength of
its solid vote; and more directly, in the near future, it will attempt to
control legislation by capturing it bodily through the ballot-box. On
the other hand, the capitalist group, numerically weaker, hires
newspapers, universities, and legislatures, and strives to bend to its
need all the forces which go to mould public opinion.
The only honest morality displayed by either side is white-hot
indignation at the iniquities of the other side. The striking teamster
complacently takes a scab driver into an alley, and with an iron bar
breaks his arms, so that he can drive no more, but cries out to high
Heaven for justice when the capitalist breaks his skull by means of a
club in the hands of a policeman. Nay, the members of a union will
declaim in impassioned rhetoric for the God-given right of an eight-hour
day, and at the time be working their own business agent seventeen hours
out of the twenty-four.
A capitalist such as Collis P. Huntington, and his name is Legion, after
a long life spent in buying the aid of countless legislatures, will wax
virtuously wrathful, and condemn in unmeasured terms "the dangerous
tendency of crying out to the Government for aid" in the way of labor
legislation. Without a quiver, a member of the capitalist group will run
tens of thousands of pitiful child-laborers through his life-destroying
cotton factories, and weep maudlin and constitutional tears over one scab
hit in the back with a brick. He will drive a "compulsory" free contract
with an unorganized laborer on the basis of a starvation wage, saying,
"Take it or leave it," knowing that to leave it means to die of hunger,
and in the next breath, when the organizer entices that laborer into a
union, will storm patriotically about the inalienable right of all men to
work. In short, the chief moral concern of either side is with the
morals of the other side. They are not in the business for their moral
welfare, but to achieve the enviable position of the non-scab who gets
more than he gives.
But there is more to the question than has yet been discussed. The labor
scab is no more detestable to his brother laborers than is the capitalist
scab to his brother capitalists. A capitalist may get most for least in
dealing with his laborers, and in so far be a non-scab; but at the same
time, in his dealings with his fellow-capitalists, he may give most for
least and be the very worst kind of scab. The most heinous crime an
employer of labor can commit is to scab on his fellow-employers of labor.
Just as the individual laborers have organized into groups to protect
themselves from the peril of the scab laborer, so have the employers
organized into groups to protect themselves from the peril of the scab
employer. The employers' federations, associations, and trusts are
nothing more nor less than unions. They are organized to destroy
scabbing amongst themselves and to encourage scabbing amongst others.
For this reason they pool interests, determine prices, and present an
unbroken and aggressive front to the labor group.
As has been said before, nobody likes to play the compulsorily generous
role of scab. It is a bad business proposition on the face of it. And
it is patent that there would be no capitalist scabs if there were not
more capital than there is work for capital to do. When there are enough
factories in existence to supply, with occasional stoppages, a certain
commodity, the building of new factories by a rival concern, for the
production of that commodity, is plain advertisement that that capital is
out of a job. The first act of this new aggregation of capital will be
to cut prices, to give more for less,--in short to scab, to strike at the
very existence of the less generous aggregation of capital the work of
which it is trying to do.
No scab capitalist strives to give more for less for any other reason
than that he hopes, by undercutting a competitor and driving that
competitor out of the market, to get that market and its profits for
himself. His ambition is to achieve the day when he shall stand alone in
the field both as buyer and seller,--when he will be the royal non-scab,
buying most for least, selling least for most, and reducing all about
him, the small buyers and sellers, (the consumers and the laborers), to a
general condition of scabdom. This, for example, has been the history of
Mr. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. Through all the sordid
villanies of scabdom he has passed, until today he is a most regal
non-scab. However, to continue in this enviable position, he must be
prepared at a moment's notice to go scabbing again. And he is prepared.
Whenever a competitor arises, Mr. Rockefeller changes about from giving
least for most and gives most for least with such a vengeance as to drive
the competitor out of existence.
The banded capitalists discriminate against a scab capitalist by refusing
him trade advantages, and by combining against him in most relentless
fashion. The banded laborers, discriminating against a scab laborer in
more primitive fashion, with a club, are no more merciless than the
banded capitalists.
Mr. Casson tells of a New York capitalist who withdrew from the Sugar
Union several years ago and became a scab. He was worth something like
twenty millions of dollars. But the Sugar Union, standing shoulder to
shoulder with the Railroad Union and several other unions, beat him to
his knees till he cried, "Enough." So frightfully did they beat him that
he was obliged to turn over to his creditors his home, his chickens, and
his gold watch. In point of fact, he was as thoroughly bludgeoned by the
Federation of Capitalist Unions as ever scab workman was bludgeoned by a
labor union. The intent in either case is the same,--to destroy the
scab's producing power. The labor scab with concussion of the brain is
put out of business, and so is the capitalist scab who has lost all his
dollars down to his chickens and his watch.
But the role of scab passes beyond the individual. Just as individuals
scab on other individuals, so do groups scab on other groups. And the
principle involved is precisely the same as in the case of the simple
labor scab. A group, in the nature of its organization, is often
compelled to give most for least, and, so doing, to strike at the life of
another group. At the present moment all Europe is appalled by that
colossal scab, the United States. And Europe is clamorous with agitation
for a Federation of National Unions to protect her from the United
States. It may be remarked, in passing, that in its prime essentials
this agitation in no wise differs from the trade-union agitation among
workmen in any industry. The trouble is caused by the scab who is giving
most for least. The result of the American scab's nefarious actions will
be to strike at the food and shelter of Europe. The way for Europe to
protect herself is to quit bickering among her parts and to form a union
against the scab. And if the union is formed, armies and navies may be
expected to be brought into play in fashion similar to the bricks and
clubs in ordinary labor struggles.
In this connection, and as one of many walking delegates for the nations,
M. Leroy-Beaulieu, the noted French economist, may well be quoted. In a
letter to the Vienna Tageblatt, he advocates an economic alliance among
the Continental nations for the purpose of barring out American goods, an
economic alliance, in his own language, "_which may possibly and
desirably develop into a political alliance_."
It will be noted, in the utterances of the Continental walking delegates,
that, one and all, they leave England out of the proposed union. And in
England herself the feeling is growing that her days are numbered if she
cannot unite for offence and defence with the great American scab. As
Andrew Carnegie said some time ago, "The only course for Great Britain
seems to be reunion with her grandchild or sure decline to a secondary
place, and then to comparative insignificance in the future annals of the
English-speaking race."
Cecil Rhodes, speaking of what would have obtained but for the
pig-headedness of George III, and of what will obtain when England and
the United States are united, said, "_No cannon would. . . be fired on
either hemisphere but by permission of The English race_." It would seem
that England, fronted by the hostile Continental Union and flanked by the
great American scab, has nothing left but to join with the scab and play
the historic labor role of armed Pinkerton. Granting the words of Cecil
Rhodes, the United States would be enabled to scab without let or
hindrance on Europe, while England, as professional strike-breaker and
policeman, destroyed the unions and kept order.
All this may appear fantastic and erroneous, but there is in it a soul of
truth vastly more significant than it may seem. Civilization may be
expressed today in terms of trade-unionism. Individual struggles have
largely passed away, but group-struggles increase prodigiously. And the
things for which the groups struggle are the same as of old. Shorn of
all subtleties and complexities, the chief struggle of men, and of groups
of men, is for food and shelter. And, as of old they struggled with
tooth and nail, so today they struggle with teeth and nails elongated
into armies and navies, machines, and economic advantages.
Under the definition that a scab is _one who gives more value for the
same price than another_, it would seem that society can be generally
divided into the two classes of the scabs and the non-scabs. But on
closer investigation, however, it will be seen that the non-scab is a
vanishing quantity. In the social jungle, everybody is preying upon
everybody else. As in the case of Mr. Rockefeller, he who was a scab
yesterday is a non-scab today, and tomorrow may be a scab again.
The woman stenographer or book-keeper who receives forty dollars per
month where a man was receiving seventy-five is a scab. So is the woman
who does a man's work at a weaving-machine, and the child who goes into
the mill or factory. And the father, who is scabbed out of work by the
wives and children of other men, sends his own wife and children to scab
in order to save himself.
When a publisher offers an author better royalties than other publishers
have been paying him, he is scabbing on those other publishers. The
reporter on a newspaper, who feels he should be receiving a larger salary
for his work, says so, and is shown the door, is replaced by a reporter
who is a scab; whereupon, when the belly-need presses, the displaced
reporter goes to another paper and scabs himself. The minister who
hardens his heart to a call, and waits for a certain congregation to
offer him say $500 a year more, often finds himself scabbed upon by
another and more impecunious minister; and the next time it is _his_ turn
to scab while a brother minister is hardening his heart to a call. The
scab is everywhere. The professional strike-breakers, who as a class
receive large wages, will scab on one another, while scab unions are even
formed to prevent scabbing upon scabs.
There are non-scabs, but they are usually born so, and are protected by
the whole might of society in the possession of their food and shelter.
King Edward is such a type, as are all individuals who receive hereditary
food-and-shelter privileges,--such as the present Duke of Bedford, for
instance, who yearly receives $75,000 from the good people of London
because some former king gave some former ancestor of his the market
privileges of Covent Garden. The irresponsible rich are likewise
non-scabs,--and by them is meant that coupon-clipping class which hires
its managers and brains to invest the money usually left it by its
ancestors.
Outside these lucky creatures, all the rest, at one time or another in
their lives, are scabs, at one time or another are engaged in giving more
for a certain price than any one else. The meek professor in some
endowed institution, by his meek suppression of his convictions, is
giving more for his salary than gave the other and more outspoken
professor whose chair he occupies. And when a political party dangles a
full dinner-pail in the eyes of the toiling masses, it is offering more
for a vote than the dubious dollar of the opposing party. Even a
money-lender is not above taking a slightly lower rate of interest and
saying nothing about it.
Such is the tangle of conflicting interests in a tooth-and-nail society
that people cannot avoid being scabs, are often made so against their
desires, and are often unconsciously made so. When several trades in a
certain locality demand and receive an advance in wages, they are
unwittingly making scabs of their fellow-laborers in that district who
have received no advance in wages. In San Francisco the barbers,
laundry-workers, and milk-wagon drivers received such an advance in
wages. Their employers promptly added the amount of this advance to the
selling price of their wares. The price of shaves, of washing, and of
milk went up. This reduced the purchasing power of the unorganized
laborers, and, in point of fact, reduced their wages and made them
greater scabs.
Because the British laborer is disinclined to scab,--that is, because he
restricts his output in order to give less for the wage he receives,--it
is to a certain extent made possible for the American capitalist, who
receives a less restricted output from his laborers, to play the scab on
the English capitalist. As a result of this, (of course combined with
other causes), the American capitalist and the American laborer are
striking at the food and shelter of the English capitalist and laborer.
The English laborer is starving today because, among other things, he is
not a scab. He practises the policy of "ca' canny," which may be defined
as "go easy." In order to get most for least, in many trades he performs
but from one-fourth to one-sixth of the labor he is well able to perform.
An instance of this is found in the building of the Westinghouse Electric
Works at Manchester. The British limit per man was 400 bricks per day.
The Westinghouse Company imported a "driving" American contractor, aided
by half a dozen "driving" American foremen, and the British bricklayer
swiftly attained an average of 1800 bricks per day, with a maximum of
2500 bricks for the plainest work.
But, the British laborer's policy of "ca' canny," which is the very
honorable one of giving least for most, and which is likewise the policy
of the English capitalist, is nevertheless frowned upon by the English
capitalist, whose business existence is threatened by the great American
scab. From the rise of the factory system, the English capitalist gladly
embraced the opportunity, wherever he found it, of giving least for most.
He did it all over the world whenever he enjoyed a market monopoly, and
he did it at home with the laborers employed in his mills, destroying
them like flies till prevented, within limits, by the passage of the
Factory Acts. Some of the proudest fortunes of England today may trace
their origin to the giving of least for most to the miserable slaves of
the factory towns. But at the present time the English capitalist is
outraged because his laborers are employing against him precisely the
same policy he employed against them, and which he would employ again did
the chance present itself.
Yet "ca' canny" is a disastrous thing to the British laborer. It has
driven ship-building from England to Scotland, bottle-making from
Scotland to Belgium, flint-glass-making from England to Germany, and
today is steadily driving industry after industry to other countries. A
correspondent from Northampton wrote not long ago: "Factories are working
half and third time. . . . There is no strike, there is no real labor
trouble, but the masters and men are alike suffering from sheer lack of
employment. Markets which were once theirs are now American." It would
seem that the unfortunate British laborer is 'twixt the devil and the
deep sea. If he gives most for least, he faces a frightful slavery such
as marked the beginning of the factory system. If he gives least for
most, he drives industry away to other countries and has no work at all.
But the union laborers of the United States have nothing of which to
boast, while, according to their trade-union ethics, they have a great
deal of which to be ashamed. They passionately preach short hours and
big wages, the shorter the hours and the bigger the wages the better.
Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a
traitor, of a Christian for a Judas. And in the face of all this, they
are as colossal scabs as the United States is a colossal scab. For all
of their boasted unions and high labor ideals, they are about the most
thoroughgoing scabs on the planet.
Receiving $4.50 per day, because of his proficiency and immense working
power, the American laborer has been known to scab upon scabs (so called)
who took his place and received only $0.90 per day for a longer day. In
this particular instance, five Chinese coolies, working longer hours,
gave less value for the price received from their employer than did one
American laborer.
It is upon his brother laborers overseas that the American laborer most
outrageously scabs. As Mr. Casson has shown, an English nail-maker gets
$3 per week, while an American nail-maker gets $30. But the English
worker turns out 200 pounds of nails per week, while the American turns
out 5500 pounds. If he were as "fair" as his English brother, other
things being equal, he would be receiving, at the English worker's rate
of pay, $82.50. As it is, he is scabbing upon his English brother to the
tune of $79.50 per week. Dr. Schultze-Gaevernitz has shown that a German
weaver produces 466 yards of cotton a week at a cost of .303 per yard,
while an American weaver produces 1200 yards at a cost of .02 per yard.
But, it may be objected, a great part of this is due to the more improved
American machinery. Very true, but none the less a great part is still
due to the superior energy, skill, and willingness of the American
laborer. The English laborer is faithful to the policy of "ca' canny."
He refuses point-blank to get the work out of a machine that the New
World scab gets out of a machine. Mr. Maxim, observing a wasteful
hand-labor process in his English factory, invented a machine which he
proved capable of displacing several men. But workman after workman was
put at the machine, and without exception they turned out neither more
nor less than a workman turned out by hand. They obeyed the mandate of
the union and went easy, while Mr. Maxim gave up in despair. Nor will
the British workman run machines at as high speed as the American, nor
will he run so many. An American workman will "give equal attention
simultaneously to three, four, or six machines or tools, while the
British workman is compelled by his trade union to limit his attention to
one, so that employment may be given to half a dozen men."
But for scabbing, no blame attaches itself anywhere. With rare
exceptions, all the people in the world are scabs. The strong, capable
workman gets a job and holds it because of his strength and capacity.
And he holds it because out of his strength and capacity he gives a
better value for his wage than does the weaker and less capable workman.
Therefore he is scabbing upon his weaker and less capable brother
workman. He is giving more value for the price paid by the employer.
The superior workman scabs upon the inferior workman because he is so
constituted and cannot help it. The one, by fortune of birth and
upbringing, is strong and capable; the other, by fortune of birth and
upbringing, is not so strong nor capable. It is for the same reason that
one country scabs upon another. That country which has the good fortune
to possess great natural resources, a finer sun and soil, unhampering
institutions, and a deft and intelligent labor class and capitalist class
is bound to scab upon a country less fortunately situated. It is the
good fortune of the United States that is making her the colossal scab,
just as it is the good fortune of one man to be born with a straight back
while his brother is born with a hump.
It is not good to give most for least, not good to be a scab. The word
has gained universal opprobrium. On the other hand, to be a non-scab, to
give least for most, is universally branded as stingy, selfish, and
unchristian-like. So all the world, like the British workman, is 'twixt
the devil and the deep sea. It is treason to one's fellows to scab, it
is unchristian-like not to scab.
Since to give least for most, and to give most for least, are universally
bad, what remains? Equity remains, which is to give like for like, the
same for the same, neither more nor less. But this equity, society, as
at present constituted, cannot give. It is not in the nature of
present-day society for men to give like for like, the same for the same.
And so long as men continue to live in this competitive society,
struggling tooth and nail with one another for food and shelter, (which
is to struggle tooth and nail with one another for life), that long will
the scab continue to exist. His will "to live" will force him to exist.
He may be flouted and jeered by his brothers, he may be beaten with
bricks and clubs by the men who by superior strength and capacity scab
upon him as he scabs upon them by longer hours and smaller wages, but
through it all he will persist, giving a bit more of most for least than
they are giving.