Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-10-05
THE FOLLY OF COMMUNISM,


Some theories kill themselves by natural
process of deve,opment-or, as would be
more properly said, by a natural process OF
AS soon us reason 10 Drought |
to bear upon them, and their Necessary re-
suits are gradually unfoldcd, they appear
more and more impractical, and finally are
abandoned altogethe".
Such theory, it seems to us, is That oil
Communism. 1t appears plausible enough
to the unihinkng mind, at first, and, Ike
many other deceptive theories, looks better
for little thought and worse only for good
deal of thought. Reasoning specifically,
and without the data provided by patient
and intelligent observation and comparison,
Communism may easily be made TO seem II
practical and desirable theory. Bat such it
certainly is not, when The Facts are thorough
ly brought out as will readily appear from
brief statistical computation.
According to Mr.. Edward Atkinson, Il
close student of industrial economy, the an
nnal product of this country, in every de
partmcnt Of industry, docs not exceed fifty
cents per day for each man, woman aud
child But this sum in the aggregate would
represent nearly 10000 900, 900, which is a
sufficient high limit At which TO put our year
" product. Out Of this there is each year
Consumed in the process Of existence not less
than 50, coo, 900, 900 and Of the ,emaining
. / 900, 900, go half is consumed III the work
nnnin,niling existing capital in a working
condition. The yearly increase of the coun-
try's wealth is thus seen t. be about $780,
600, 00J Says the Boston H1"H: III We
take from the annual aggregate product OF
the country the expense Ui municipal, stale
and national governments, ii is shown that
there is left to family Of four persons,
which IS a fair unit of calculation, 5000 As
its proportion of the years supply. The
head OF h Juschold s. constituted. Whose
income exceeds this amount, obtalus it iii
consequence of the fact that others receive
less than this sum. On tie other hand, if
an equal distribution were made of each
years productions, the situation of the in
ttliigent labofing man who receives fair
days pay for a fair days work would not
be much IMPROVED How much of II basis,
then, has communism, in view of this state
ment Of facts If TIE entire increase Of The
country's wealth annually we're divided per
capita among the population, each person
would receive the princely sum Of 80 p,r
aunum-- something lrss titan the average
day laborer can arm by Il single weeks work.
Now is it likely that, if the entire producing
capital OF the country were divided in the
same way ii would continue to produce -
per capita annually And il not, how long
would it bc before it would produce nothing,
and finally decrease until the entire nation
would be practically bcggared!
The Communistic idea is that, II The capt.
tai of the country were equally divided
among all the people, all would b, rich, or
at least, "well-olf :" whereas, the fact
is that all would be poor, and in the way to
grow oJrer every year. The diffusion OF
capital would lie s,lrcto result in its loss of
producing power. 1t would be diverted
from tn psc great an! woll knowing enter
priscs and industries which are literally the
mills Of til, peoples moaey. suppose for
instance that the concentration OF capital
now employed in carrying On the business OF
the New York Central rail:oa were divided
equally among the people of the State OF
New York. Would there be any increase in
the prosperity OF that State? No: the re-