Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-27
ssTHE SoCIALISTS.o

General Walkers Third and CoRcludI ing Lecture at Marquand ChaPe-
 Before the Yale Theological School.
 The. Marquand chapel was filled yesterd ay afternoon when General Walker announced stThe Socialists" as the subject of his last lecture. It is by regarding the Socialists that we can form an idea of what socialism is, as it is by considering the personale of leaders and the records of acts that we come to knowledge of the body. Whoever else may be Socialists, a certain class called by this title are not. Among themselves the members of the party differ widely. The use of the termSocialists has produced bewilder- ment of the public mind; the fact that cer- tain professors and instructors in Germany have called themselves Socialists does not make them so. Such societies are merely protest against extreme individualism. The individual property qualified by public timent they respect as a general principle of public life and with the division of men into classes they will not interfere. The desire is to break down capitalistic production and se- cure the chief control of industrial enter prise. No one is to be called Socialist who would lead society into classes and leave the product of industry to be effected by com
 
 of progress in the far future, but he is only a sympathizer not a Socialist. The Social ists are an aggressive party, one section of which aims at the concentration of the na- tion, and another section at the Commune or relations of a loose federal char but the recoil of the more thoughtful Socialists. MT. Walker then gave 8 brief sketch of the industrial system before and after the capitalistic era Be- fore this the medieval structure of socie- ty remained intact even the mechanic arts were prosecuted under feudalissh. The revo- lution came all at once, and with tremen- dous force snapped the old system; the la borer became a competitor; each for himself was the universal principle of life The employed had one thing to do-to do what their employers directed and as they directed, while the em- ployers had only to pay wages. Philoso- phers were happy in the belief that laisser faire was the motto of the new system. Upon men of no social ambition, not even inquisi- tive, with appetites for strong drink, was thrown the competition with the master class and with each other. Not only by legisla- tion have the evils of unequal competition been lessened, but by cheap postage, savings banks and free public education have the laborers been prepared for competition. The feudalistic barriers were broken down and ures established. Within the last thirty years the cheapening of the rates of transportation has brought la borers under the full weight of competition and has reinforced the body of Socialists in Europe, especially in Italy and Spain. Real Socialists are in plenty to make revolution. It is truism to assert that certain revolutions have an uniform course in the public mind, and that others proceed by fits and starts. How far men in Germany are Socialists through opposition to Militar- ianisIn or through Republicanism, how far -Agrarianism is a force, how far the recent accessions have expressed depression and suffering are questions not easily an swered with assurance Germany has more convinced Socialists than any other country. France is the classic land of Agrarianism and Socialism, but now, in spite of vicious politi- cal traditions and habits, Socialism is less prominent than st any period since the revo lution. The causes are free discussion, the interest of the laboring class in indus trial cooperation and trades unions, which serve to make the relation between the em- ployer and the employed more permanent. Economists have something to learn as well as something to teach. In the last fourteen years they have learned more than they had then to teach. There is little fear of the spectre which terriies the statesmen ot Aus tria and Germany.