﻿Capitalism Was a Great System Once  
By T-BONE SLIM 
 
(Selected from unpublished manuscript). 
It wasn’t such a bad boil when it started. It was such a pretty little thing! Not much more than a pimple. But look at it now! I am referring, of course, to the capitalistic system.  

“Equality of opportunity” is what they are gonna hand us now. 
Never mind the equality, just give us a sample of the opportunity. Lots of people never saw one. 
“Pressure of progress” is supposed to be the activator for all those blessings we’re gonna get. The steam must be low, or we’d already got ‘em. The chances are we ain’t gonna get ‘em unless we take ‘em. 

Recurrence and reversion to or back are outside the merits of the case, as: 
Recur to what? Revert to what? 
What we want is improvement on that which was and on that which is. And to get that we are willing to recur, revert, or stand on our head.  
Rehabilitation will not fetch home the bacon. It may give us what was––but what was it? It is the choosing of a lesser evil than you have. Why dwell in the realm of evils? Why demand only less onerous evils? It’s like hollering for smaller cracks in your walls. 
As William Spearshake said, “Organization is the thing.” See a man way up in “G” and you may be sure organization put here there. 
“But the man is really good in his own right,” you claim. 
“So what?” 
“Are you trying to run the man down?” 
“No, I’m just trying to run organization up.” 

The one big trouble with labor and me is that we are forever talking. We know unionism is good. So what? 
Well, we should organize once and talk about it afterwards. Let us have no more about this “what we will do,” but do it, and then tell what we have done. 
The getting of results is simple, indeed. For instance, the shorter workday requires no extended remarks. Just go out later and come in earlier.  
But we can’t very well do that while we are making speeches. 

Do you think all those stories about the little bootblack that got to be a millionaire are for the purpose of encouraging your little bootblacks? 
Your nickel is in the wrong slot. Those stories are to convince you it is proper for man or woman to have a million dollars. 

We all have petty grievances and we spend too much time consoling ourselves. So much indeed, that when a nice big grievance comes along we hardly know how to disport ourselves; we are wailed out.