Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-23

Hon. Carroll D. Wright, United States com
missioner of labor, gave the second lecture in
the free course at the chapel of All Souls
! church last evening on the subject Of Com
munism in History" In preliminary way the
speaker said it was not his province to discuss
socialism as it held the public mind at the pres
| ent time, but simply to give the definitions OF
communism, the apparent philosophy of social
ism, nationalsm and kindred theories and prac-
tees and also to show the most brilliant efforts
In history to establish a communistic state.
WHAT IS COMMUNISM
He said that communism is a philosophy be-
longing chiefly to the domain of property, for
as the idea of individual property grew out of
common ownership or community of goods so
communism seeks to drive property back into
that anarchial state from which it emerged
Modern writers are quite well agreed that the
idea of separate individual ownership is a
growth Of comparatively recent date and is the
result of great social changes and of progressive
development extending over vast epochs OF
time. Among the Aryan nations in Central
Asia, 1900 years probably before Christ, the
earliest form of property was that of COM
munistic groups of persons acknowledging a
common kindred and possessing a common re-
hgious worship. The tribes led by Moses dur
ing the forty years wandering were fully CON-
munistic IN their ideas and practices regarding
property. Following this community of prop
erty came property vested in the family
Whether this grew out of the community idea
or sprang up OIL an Independent basis it is i'm
possible to determine. 1t is certain however
that in the earliest stages of the Roman state.
and in the corresponding periods of the Grecian
cl.les. property was considered as q right be-
longing to the family in it's collective capacity.
By gradual changes in personal wants and de-
sires and IN social customs, by the growth of
trade and by all the other influences which have
tended to elevate the individual the notion of
private property has been developed and
finally become firmly established as one of
the foundation stones upon which the struc-
ture of modern society is erected.
POLITICAL COMMUNISM
is born OF the pernicious sentiment that the
world owes every man living Religious
communism is born of the principle which I'M
derlies the injunction. "Bear We one another's
burdens" The first is that which seeks to hold
all property In common, to wrest from skill
toll and thrift the products of skill, toll and
thrift, and share equally with those who are
unskiilful. indolent and unthrifty. This kind
of communism is in itself destructive in the
state. The second is that which seeks the
greatest good of the greatest number by
CHRISTIAN cooperation, protection, love, which
is the embodiment of the divine rule. Love
your neighbor yourself" This is in itself
n
our civilization, our Christianity. In the mod
ern sense. communism means the destructio of
labor, tor 1t robs 1t of all motive and incentive
and of all results; In fact, it dehumaniZes the
race.
IDEAL COMMUNISM.
Ideal communism has had history as bril-
liant, perhaps, as any philosophy, beginning
with Phaleas OF Chalcedon, 900 years &c, as
the very first to recommend the equalization
of property In land. And Plato (45O BC.), in
the fifth book OF his republic, puts 1t into
the mouth of Socrates to advocate not merely
the community of goods, but of wives and
children. The reverberations of the echoes OF
Plato's speculations have been long, loud. and
OF much damage to the world. Sir Thomas
Moore's Utopia" published in 1916, inspired
no doubt, by platonic deductions, had for its
social and political paradise island where
the inhabitants rejoiced in community OF
goods Still later, during the great agitations
OF Cromwelrs period. Harrington's ''Oceana"
(l656) appeared, in which the author insisted
upon division of lands These and other
idealistic works all belong to the ages back of
the eighteenth century. Although they are a
class by themselves. they sowed dragons teeth
which sprang up and gave the world
MODERN COMMUNISM,
which began mildly enough, but which grew
surly and savage everywhere 1t is now no
longer philosophy only, but system, and as
such it is mostly French, name and all. The
famous writer's of the last hundred wears are
Saint Simon. Fourier. Considerant. Proudhon,
CADET and Louis Blanc, most of whom were
philosophers of the dreamy kind, reconstruct
ing society under mellowing influences, ap-
peaiIng in calm academic tones only to the
most generous OF human sentiments. But in
Louis Blancs works in 1910 and Cadets in 1912
the ring of metal strikes the French ear and
Proudhon startles himself and France and
Europe with his announcement that
PROPERTY is ROBBERY"
The cry of the commander-in-chief of the
German wing of the communistic army, Karl
Marx, was that capital must be abolished, all
industries adopted or organized and managed
by the state. These doctrines began with
scholars and students, invading the univer-
stiles in Germany and France and in Russia.
where they take the name of nihilism Now
they madden the brain of artisans and peasants
Ill L. IL.