Workmen's advocate., 1890-05-10
Minister of Austria in his little work in Af .l {,

QilntesSence or socialism, declares that it takes years tr .ork ones way into Socialism. Th,.t work of a friendly critic, written quarter of century ago, starting from our fundamental principle-pubhc ownership and control of the instruments of production--drew such rational conclusions that we social. ists find 1t very good work for purpo- ses of propaganda. Herr Non Sch@t,le
 had not studied in vain Karl Marx, En- socialism. Socialism is too vast a sub- ject to be treated in an hours lecture
 You will pardon me if l only suggest the main line of socialist reasoning, leaving your own sturdy thought to work it out in its details It is false view that socialism is either foreign importation or Yankee notion. Social ism is not something that has sprung up within the brain of any man or set of men. Socialism is historic fact, in tegrally connected with the warp and whoof of modern thought. This is what Prof. Carl Pierson means when he de- elares "We are not students of history
 because we are socialists but we are socialists because we have studied his. tory". Scientific socialists have studied history and economics with the same untiinching courage that led Darwin and Humboit to their brilliant results in phy
 sical researches. Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge,s and host of their socialist scho- lars have discovered that from the dawn of ci yilization the economic basis has de- term'ned the nature of political, intel leCtual moral, and social institutions. They have demonstrated that labor creates wealth and is the true measure be the key to history. Briefly we may notice three great periods in the econo
 mic development of mankind: the slave state, serfdom, and the wage state in which we now live. In the antique world of Greece and Rome, land, the raw materials and all instruments of prodr ;tion, including the body of the slave, were owned and controlled by a dominating class. The basis of modern wealth is the unpaid toll of our brother men who suffered under ancient slavery, In the age of serfdo'l the oppressed toiler is no longer a m re chattel; he has certain proprietary rights in the soil. There are mutual duties binding serf and lord. The most powerful prince of the middle ages would have done violence to the moral sentiment of the time had he attempted to eXpatriate the least of his followers. What Is the condition of the toiler in our modern wage state? He finds himself utterly dspossessed of all the instruments of production. The mo- dern capitalist has assumed ownership and control of land, raw material, build- ings and machinery. The modern work ingman stretches out his two hands beg ging for employment that himself and family may not starve. The fact that he is in a less enviable condition than the slave or the feudal serf makes his heart burn with shame and indignation. His interests are not at one with the interests of the capitalist class. The slave owner cared for his slave as for horse. The feudal lord was proud of the sturdy bodies of his followers, modern capital ism robs the workingman of the last ounce of energy in the all-absorbing pursuit of wealth. Capltatism relies on the reserve army of laborers to fill the places of those who drop beneath its cruel lashings. Indeed the wage-system is the most insidions slavery the world has ever known. Such in brief is the historic movement. But is this the goal towards which humanity has been nov ing? No! Human progress IS not to end in this horrible cuI de sac. It is darkest before dawn The inspiration of scien- titic socialism will help the poor wage slave to crush the monster, capitalism. The proletarian knows full well, at last, that either he must have the mastery of capitalism or be forever it's slave. He has sworn to win both political and economic equality and his grim determi- nation is seconded by the inevitable movement of human affairs. The neces- sary development of modern capitalism side by side with the increasing func, tions of the State is preparing the way for the peoples commonwealth, for a true democracy in which all the machinery of production shall be owned and used by the whole people. Even the English school of political economists is coming to recognize the inevitableness of social democracy. In spite of the ac- cepted let-alone theory the whole course of English legislation has been socialistic for hundred years. Socialism is in the womb of things and shall have a glorious birth in due time. Ere long the genius of this nation will command the plutocrats to relinquish their unjust power and let go their hold on the peoples wealth and will say to the peo- pie: You have now attained your ma jority and it IS time for you to take the control and management of your own for your own common benefit" Com. Robinson, who at this juncture had spoken an hour, declared that the prin- ciples of the new social order were laid down in the platform of the Socialist Labor Party. He read it and made running comment, dwelling particularly on the wealth of meaning embodied in the very nama Socioijst I0bur porfU