Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-04-17
MODERN SOCIALISM.

MODERN SOCIALISM.
The Rev. Dr. A. j. Behrends dehv-
cred n discourse, last Sunday, on
Socialism and Christianity" which
contains food for serious thought by
persons who assume certain premises
TO be true, when as matter of fact
they arc open to question and discus
sion. Among other things, he said:-
Before passing to the economic falla-
cies of socialism, two other assumptions
require brief notice. The first is that
the junction of the state is the regula-
ton of the production and the distrl-
button of wealth. The plain drift of
legislation and of public opinion for
200 years has been in the direction of
personal liberty, and the limitation OF
governmental interference. Socialism
calls for Il patcrnal government, provid-
ing work and reward for every man.
The state is to become a great task
master, owning all the farms and all
the mills, and distributing their pro-
ducts. The scheme is utterly imprac-
ticablc, and the theory Oh which it is
based is wholly untenable. In its elm
ination of personal liberty from the i'll
dustrial life John Stuart Mill finds the
chronic weakness of modern socialism,
the immovable rock against which it
must be wrecked. The second assump
ton is corolIary of the paternal idea
of the state, viz: That the energy by
which wealth is produced should con-
troll the government. The soclalistic
| idea is the dominance of the laboring
classes, supremacy as really factiOnal
as the monarchical, the arlstocratic, the
military and the plutocratic, against
each of which in turn society has pro-
tested and revolted. The divine right
of labor to rule is as partisan and des-
potic formulary as the divine right of
kings, OF birth, blood and wealth; and
on this matter there can be no cOmpro-
mise with the advocates of the new
order. We have had a surtcit of class
legislation and rule, and the present
calls for the complete elimination OF
this most despicable element in govern
mental administration, so that man
hood, not its accidents of occupation,
may be enthrOned in the cOunsels OF
the state. Modern socialism, then. is
discrcdited by its assumptions that man
is the creature of circumstances, that
civil Institutions rest on force and
fraud, that the poor are growing poor
er, that it is the business of the state tC
find work for its citizens, and tina,
political power is the prerogative Of
labor. The most serious economic
fallacy of modern socialism, the pivOl
from which it would turn the economic
world upside down,is the doctrine tha
labor is the only source of wealth, anu
the sole element i'm value. This theor!
is borrowed from Adam Smith, but HI
would have looked aghast at its inter
probation. He opposed it to the doc
trinc that the soil is the only source O
wealth. The truth is that wealth com
I bines both factors, land and labor, an,
t the labor must be both muscular ant
skillful. Brains, hands and natur
must unite in productive industry
+ Labor busying itself with nothing
5 saving the air never so violently, pro
e duces nothing, and labor expended O
useless materials does not Great
+ wealth. Marx recognized that his thee
: ry of labor as the only standard @
4 value required notifications, else tn
e man who spoils a piece of cloth an
Y makes a coat that nobody wants t
e wear, working diligently ten hours
|, day for a week, ought to be paid thre
times as much as man who in twent
hours fashions a garment that dOZe
k men are ready to buy. So Marx mod
c ifies his theory by saying that it is til
e '.socially necessary" labor that fixe
c value, the average amount of labor re
e guired for the production of an article
II But in such ar event the skilled tailC
is will earn three times as much as h
bungliIg neighbOr, and the latter wi
be reduced to starvation wages
The simple truth is that there is /
conceivable way in which intelligen,
and utility, can be dispensed with in Il
y economics of society. No less seriol
,r is the fallacy involved in the socialist
W. crusade against property in land.
" distinction is made between possessiC
and ownership, but the former cann
f. be defended when the latter is denie
Of Mr.. Henry George is sure that the p(
if with which he wrote his book W;
justly his own, because he bought
of from the slatiOner, who obtained
J.; from the importer, to whom it w
of consigned by the manufacturer, wi
r in his turn obtained the raw materi
,h from those who dug it out of the min
9, But property III land the author claim
:e is robbery; and il the owner of mi
H. was Il thief, so also was the manufa
ce turcr, the importer, the statiOner al
ye the writer. From beginning to end Il
ce pen is stolen goods. Disguise it as Y
$. may, the land question is the qnesti,
H. ultimately of mans ownership
Io himself; for property has with gre
ce force been declared to he only part
g. the individual posscssor, the apparat
cr of personal life. The nationalizati,
IS of land involves the naturalization
or man, the destruction ct his person
nd liberty. The socialist5: dream th
nj governmental direction nf industri
We would be more economical and cffe
J. tive than their management on q
ut basis Of free capilalistiG will not be
as analysis. There i nothing more scat
th ing than Herbert SIcncer's cxposu
m of this dclirium. 1t is notorious tn
|,l governments are the most wlSleful pr
or duccrs and the most profitable Gust
mers- Public contracts are suggest
no of fraud. The best brain is not foul
ed on the civil lists, and business is b,
IN conducted when government refrai
* from mcddIing Socialists attack nOthi
no more licrccly than the wage sysiei
he and they demand the substitution
of labor certificates Tor gold aud silv
o. Hours are to take The place of poun
an and dollars i'll barter and eXchan.
m II is difficult to see what advanta
woul.l accrue from the prupos
,II change, for paper checks are not wca
= and would be subject to the same la
,cc that determine the value Of a
ct. medium of exchange. There is n sil
Sc, liar dcnunciatiom of machinery and
lid the evils of free competition in pl
for duction. The latter sophistries hs
rg- been admirably exposed by MIR. l
me ward Atkinson. Competition a
alf machinery have been a blessing to
be laborcr vastly cheapening product,