o 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.