New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-11-12
SOCIALISM,.

/ SoClALlSM.
The Farmer and Mechanic in an article en-
titled " Socialism," and containing many ex-
/ cellent ideas, puts forth the following asser'
! tons:
comes the day of trial Two classes are created Is
so now it always has been so. One class IL the
virtual slave of the other In the South they
hover aroundthe ovorseers house the plantation In
the North they gathered around the cacking mill on
the banks of streams, or are crowded In the by
ways Of cities. Each year the country advances
this class become worse Thus it always has been--t
Il 80 now Cannot this be altered Is il inevitable Is
liberty indeed iii only for rural swans
This is an old doctrine it has been taught by
good and wise men; but for all that we hold it
none the less untrue and pernicious.
The condition Of factory laborers cannot on
the whole or for any length of time, be worse
than that of farm laborers and mechanics
For, any considerable inequality, either in the
difficulty or tOilesomeness Of the work, the
comforts of living, or the wages earned, must
soon right itself The branches Offering harder
work, poorer living, and less wages, must in
due time find themselves deserted, and COM
PEELED to change, and rise TO the general level if
they would have laborers. If then, as the
country advances in Wealth, Power and Pros
perty, the condition Of manufacturing laborers
becomes worse, it follows that the condition of
all who depend on their labor for their living
becomes 30 That is to say, it follows that the
condition of the immense majority of the popu
laton deteriorates as the country improves
manifest absurdity, and palpable contradic-
! ton Of the facts.
/ II this doctrine were true, the dictate of
Christianity, philanthropy and good sense
would be to arrest the progress of the country
TO restrain the production of wealth; to put
check upon invention and industry to confne
the people to the single employment of tling
the soil; and to prevent every great enter
prise requiring the association oflarge amounts
of capital, with the use of labOr-saving ma
chinery Of improved scientific process, and
the employment Of numbers of wOrkmen. In
stead Of welcoming and favoring that march of
industry and science which is the great char
acteristic of the time, and which is held TO be
the sure barrier against relapse of society
into barbarism, We ought at once to turn our
faces backward 10 the middle ages, or to
emigrate to Turkey all of us together. For
no advance in wealth, power and prosperity
can be other than evil when purchased by the
degradation and deeper enslavement of the
great mass of our fellow-beings.
: Nay, if this doctrine be true, the peace
maintained at large expense, between rich
and poor and thought to be so advantageous
to all, ought instantly to be broken, and civil
and social war to break forth. If it be- true,
all society is antagOnism, every mans interest
is at war with every other mans, all science
and all material improvement are folly, and all
history but the record of ever deeper and
blacker degradation. And the sooner univer-
sal chaos and destruction put an end to the
vast mistake Of creation the better
But il is not true.
The great inequality in social condition aud
the distinction of upper and lower classes does
not date from the elimination ofcivilization and
commerce, and from the increase Of wealth,
but much earlier, from the very beginning of
society, in poverty Ignorance and excessive
weakness. There, where war, slavery, and
cruelty are native, where the few strong as
sumo 70 rule over the feeble many, calling in
superstition TO consecrate their authority
there it is that this autagonism of classes
and OF interests begins and exists in mosr per-
feet intensity. Ii is in poverty, ignorance
and the absence of manufacturing industry,
machinery, science, that one class is made the
slave of the other. Doubtless great his
toric, providential purpose is thereby worked
out. That purpose is briefly the creation of
wealth and the endowment of Man xith con-
troll over the forces of nature. And as it is ac-
eomplished, slavery is gradually alleviated and