The Labor enquirer., 1886-04-24
Socialism Means That No Man
Shall Reap Where He has
Not SoWn.
By What Contortion of Logic
Does Socialism Destroy
Worthy Ambition?
This Objection Only Raised by Those
Who Cannot Distinguish Between
Greed and Ambition.
For The Enquirer.

|
We are told that the Socialistic theory
put into practice will result in the de-
struction of all personal ambition in man.
l do not think so. ~
AS understand Socialism, it means
the giving to earth and every man all he
produces. If understand it Alright it
means the establishment of a co-opera-
tive system of national magnitude, the
unde lying and basic principle of which
shall be that every man is by right en-
titled to every particle of value which
his hand or his brain produces. 1t
means that as according as a man is
capable and and industrious so shall he
reap reward.
1t means, as understand it, that no
man shall be allowed toreap where he
has not sown, that no man can under
cover of any law make profit off the
labor of brain or muscle of anY other
man. When man shall have access freely
| to the great treasure vaults of nature and
Is assured that his toll and sweat will
not enrich some 9th man, then and
not till then can he be free in the real
sense of that word.
And still we are told that the estab-
lishment of form of government and
code of laws which will guarantee to
every man the full result of his efforts,
will destroy all ambition and leave the
human race in a state of purposeless in
activity. | would like very we'll to know
by what conttrtion oflogic and common
sense man can prove that the fact that
he is free to have and enjoy all lie can
produce in the material wealth Of this
world, will tend to make him destitute
of a great, an overwhelming ambition.
1t is an insult to the most ordinary
human intelligence to tell men that they
will lose all ambition if they do not have
man to set them to work, and when
they have done, to have him take to
himself as his own the result of their
work, their Drawn and mind, their toll
and endeavor.
Among all the absurd and unreasona-
BILE objections to Socialism this one is
the paragon of absurdities. Can the
sheep live without the wolf to prey
upon them2 Can man exist without
scrofula and cancer?
Can the human race be happy without
chains and shackles on Its limbs?
If the sheep can live without the wolf,
and man exist without cancer and scrof-
ula, and the human race be happy with
ont chains and shacKles, then what under
heaven is to prevent men from being
ambitious, if they have no milestone in
the shape ofa capitalist hung around
their necks to drag them down beneath
the pestilential waters of the slough of
wage slavery
What is ambition? Webster defines
the word as an eager desire for fame or
power.
The desire for fame and power. which
as take it means happiness, is the main
spring in the human machine. Men to-
day seek for fame and power and imag-
inc they have them boCh in the posses
sion of gold alone; but they mistake
greatly, for true, pure fame and genuine
power brings to their possessor happi-
ness which the money-cursed Wander
bilts, Goulds or Astors never can know.
Wendell Phillips was one of the men
whose ambition made him name that
will not be forgotten. He was successful
IN his efforts to achieve power and fame
that is, the genuine and real fame and
power-and he was happy in its posses
sion.
When, as the result of his labors, he
saw the shackles struck from the limbs
of the black man, who can say he did
not feel happiness within him such as
all the wealth of a Va .derbilt could not
buy. Hewas ambitious to achieve hon
| est fame and power which he could
use in uplifting the despised and loWlV
of Gods creatures.
He has left behind him the example
of noble ambition and name that will
be honored while the desire for liberty
lives IN the hearts of men.
Vanderbilt left behind him the exam
pie of an ambition whose title to nobil-
ity rests on a monument of gold Wrung
from the labor and toll of his fellow men.
The perpetuity of his name rests with
the artisan who chisels his name in the
marble.
To many this assertion, that Socialism
will destroy ambition, seems a real and
valid objection, and l must confess that
it so seemed to me for some time after
after l had thought on the doctrine of
Socialism but now can realize the
utter absurdity of the proposition: Lib
erty will destroy mans ambition. How
utterly and absolutely ridiculous thai
assertion is, aud that is exactly what
the defamers of Socialism say when they
assert that it will destroy ambition. In
defense of this proposition l desire to
say that, novice though I be in the sci
ence of Socialism, 1 can show that it il
nothing but means or, if you please,