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 POLITICALALLIANCE."
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 FIREDON 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 THESAME 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.
