the condition of the working class is not getting worse but improving. And furthermore, say they, Marx is wrong in asserting that the growth of misery, etc., of the working class is necessary for the transition from capitalism to socialism. How—they ask—can a miserable, oppressed, enslaved, degraded, and exploited working class fight the battle and win the victory for Socialism? In support of their contention as to the actual condition of the working class they point to the facts, or alleged facts, that the hours of labor have shortened and the wages have increased since the writing of that passage by Marx; that the workingmen are better housed and better fed now than formerly and that pauperism is on the wane rather than on the increase. They make those assertions in a manner as if they were stating undisputed facts which require no proof to support them. As a matter of fact, however, these assertions are very far from stating undisputed facts. It is sufficient to mention some very recent literature on the subject, such as Hunter's "Poverty," Spargo's "The Bitter Cry of the Children," and the articles of Theodor Rothstein,[1] to show that the question of poverty among the working class is as yet a much mooted question. The truth is that appearances, particularly the appearances of statistical figures in certain reports, on which the revisionists mainly base their contentions, are very deceptive.
To begin with, there are intentional deceptions in a good many of our official statistics. As an illustration in point may be taken a statistical report or abstract sent out recently from the Bureau of Statistics in Washington. It was to the effect that during the financial year closed June 30, 1906, wages had increased one and a half per cent. in certain leading industries, whereas the cost of living had increased only about one-half per cent. This report is false on its face, and it does not require long research to find its falsity. It is
- ↑ Robert Hunter, Poverty. Macmillan, 1905. John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children. Macmillan, 1906. Theodor Rothstein, in Neue Zeit (1906).
