LETTER XII
My dear Judd:
I have said that unemployment is a disease of the profit system, incurable under that system. I am now going to show why, and I consider these facts the most important in the whole world for a workingman to understand. They are perfectly simple—any child can grasp them; yet they are never mentioned in any newspaper, and never taught in any school. The reason is equally simple—any editor who publishes them, or any teacher who teaches them, immediately loses his job.
I put them into a series of short sentences for you to paste all around the rim of your hat and study while you are sawing timbers and mixing cement. First, then:
The boss is not in business for his health. Ask him!
And then, equally easy to verify:
The boss will make no more goods than he can sell at a profit.
And so, plainly enough:
Profits for the boss, wages for the workingman; no profits for the boss, starvation and death for the workingman.