Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-15

down into the cellar, and the conversation
grew general.
'Come here, Jack, cried Charlie, "and
| bring your friend, which JACK accordingly
| did, introducing Mr.. Scrawley, gentleman
who acted as reporter on the Trumpet
| The latter had the general seedy appear
| ance of man who seldom went to bed and
then, probably, did so In his clothes A
member of a hard. working body of men,
he managed to support wife and three
| children on the not very magnificent emol-
uments of his position. A kindly soul
enough in private, and never grandelo-
quent or egotistical until he found himself
armed with pencil and paper on which to
"spread himself, which he did at times
very thin. Beginning life as a newsboy,
and with little or no education, he had ac-
CURED, by reading his stock-in. trade, a
coplous flow of very fine language and a
portable stock of second. hand, almost
greasy quotations or rather Interpretations
enough to make Shakespeare gasp and
stare.
eve called in at the old bears head
| quarters on our way, but found it closed
up, said Jack.
"Oh, yes" said Dawlish '.There
isn't bear to be found anywhere just now.
They have crawled into hole, and pulled
the hole after them, and are sucking their
paws for livelihood"
sob, they'll live through it somehow"
said Captain Sternaway. "This kind of
thing can't last forever
"The boom is only beginning" said
| Dawlish. "There is no telling where it
will stop. The Old Judge stock has nearly
reached 400, and they will push it to l, 600
before they stop"
81 am glad you think SO" said the
Captain.
Il don't think SO, said Dawlish Il
know it +"
"For my part, said Jack Holmes, 81
think this business of stock deals and ex-
elements will not be without It's good re-
suits, in the long run"
81 don't see how you make that out, D
said the Captain.
''Well, replied Jack, &c it will have the
effect of aceelerating process, evil in it.
self, which is now going on in the country
to an alarming extent, if one did not be-
lieve in the ultimate evolution OF good
from it. mean the rapid accumulation of
wealth in few hands"
81 scarcely see, said Charlie, " how
you will bring any good out OF that
''Well, in this way, perhaps; these few
rich men will find that a strong Govern
ment is a necessity for their own protec-
| ton, and they viii, moreover, find the
! poor thrown on their hands to be sup
ported, for they cannot let them starve,
| and they cannot evade the responsibility
| by showing it on the next man as they
might where capital was more divided.
/ Now, from paternal despotism to pa
ternal socialism is but short step, and the
latter will grow up naturally, or the people
in desperation will take the matter into
their own hands, and establish demo
cratic socialism. "
| 4" our scheme has more the look of
revolution than evolution, -" said Charlie.
g 1t may be either. I think it is Karl
| Marx who says that force is the accoucheur
of one state of society pregnant with an
| other"
4 do not think, " said Charlie, that
socialism will ever be possible in this
country. In its very essence 1t is opposed
to two factors which have here their highest
development. l mean selfishness and love
of liberty"
e think you are begging the question
and confusing the meaning OF words Your
selGshness means the desire of aecumu-
lating property, but with hungry man it
means the want of something to eat. Your
liberty means liberty to work at what
you please, but your system sometimes
allows it to mean liberty to starve. Now,
in neither of those two senses of the words
are they opposed to socialism.
The state of things at which you are
| 1rba1, raduoad IN re loxvpct do
nomination on the one side vast body of
men more or less on the point of starving,
and on the other, few men who have
| try, and with no intermediate class. Do
you believe that this will ever be possible
in this country"
"There is no telling" said Jack, "what
will happen after the public domain is all
taken up. So long as a man can take up
homestead of free land, there will be no
serious pressure, although you may hear
| the mutterings of the storm but the va
cant public land which will support
family by agriculture is becoming scarcer
every day, and the rich men are growing
richer and the poor poorer. The shadow
of hard times is upon US. | warn you
they are coming in spite of all your stock
booms and yet these men go on steadily
absorbing the savings of the poor. They
/ think only of themselves, and are, if you
will, the highest development and embodi.
ment of pure selfshness."
81 am not defending the institution,
said Charlie, who felt as if he was once
more on the floor of the debating society
at home. "Self-made men are apt to for
get that property has it's duties as well as
its rights, but l believe that the laws and
customs of America will dissipate these
accumulations in gene alton or two. But
of all the absurdities which have entered
into the mind of man, your paternal gov
eminent is the worst. France under the
second empire is an example. 1t was
almost socialistic in its fatherly care for
the poor, who were kept in good humor by
| finding them work. You remember the
fostering mass of corruption which existed
under that administration, and the disaster
which was It's necessary result. Honesty Is
| impossible under any such system.
81 know" admitted Jack, that, when
| it comes to details, l am weak as yet, but
believe that the great forces of the world
are shaping themselves that way, and that
when the time comes a perfect system will
grow up."
"But you don't mean to say that you
really believe in socialism % said Captain
Stornoway, looking at Jack as one looks at
tarantula, alive in bottle.
"Well, 1 hardly know" the other re-
piled. Zone scarcely believes anything
very strongly on the grounds of pure rea-
son there is 50 much to be said on both
sides. If you look through history you
will ind that the opinions men have held
most strongly were grounded on authority,
or something besides reason. If socialism
is ever established it will be by hunger,
and not by reason"
sob, give us rest, Jack, said paw
lish the only socialism we want now is
to drink our beer in quiet, without quar-
reling over what we don't understand.
That's social enough for me-
"Pray don't imagine that l have been
talking for your enlightenment, said Jack
to Dawlish 81 have been merely follow
ing up curious train of reasoning for my
own amusement.
| oo-,L 1oIo H.,