Workmen's advocate., 1890-04-26
SOCIALISM IN LYNN.
A pNersioh rom Shoemaking to the study of Distributi,o Justice-Capt.
 huntington's Pertinent Address

| "N"N''Cb lt" udlr ago p(
 Capt F. $. Huntington at meeting held
 under the auspices of the Socialists of
 that city, the report of it occupying
 three columns of the Duly Bee,
 After showing at length that Socialism
 embodied in rational form the eternal
 principles of justice which the great
 religious teachers of morality in the past
 had endeaVored to convey in a religious
 form he said.
 Mankind needs no elaborate system
 of superStitious dogmas, no fanciful
 theories about the natural or superna-
 tural universe, as a guide to happiness.
 The few words of wisdom which have
 been spoken alike by all the great moral
 teachers of the earth convey but one
 meaning, expressed by the single phrase
 BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.
 Aoroaster, Gautauma, Confucius, Christ! Four prophets gave the same moral precept-with slightly different wording Do unto others as you would have others do unto you If men obey this one command, no further guide to moral life is required. Too much stress has been laid in the past by all religions on the importance of the individual soul; so self interest has been the key note of theological as well as moral sys tems. Sound ethics should teach self denial to the individual, only to the small extent needed for that individuals obligation to the state. Muford, one of the wisest writers on political economy, says: The state is continuous consci- ous organism, and moral personality which has its foundations laid in the nature of man, and It's purpose is the welfare of the people,
 "The ideal moral system ought to be founded, therefore, on neither personal holiness nor personal interest; it must rest upon social happiness The perfect individual must ever be subordinate to the perfect society. Purify the spirit of organized society! This is the present duty of socialism The seed of new ethic has been planted in the awakened mind of the nineteenth century. This vital germ will grow in human consci ousness, and we may cherish the most hopeful anticipations for the future de- velopment of a society which shall pos sess a moral soul"
 In the course of his address he came to speak of the liquor problem, as fol- lows:
 ''In treating socialism from the moral few words on what is termed
 THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION are perhaps appropriate. There can be | no denial Of the fact that the abuse of | alcoholic stimulant brings added misery | to the lot of small percentage of the | members of the toiing masses; and this | likewise, sorrow, disease and rum to very many members of W hat | is called the upper classes. But intem- perance is the effect and not the cause of the present unfair social arrange ments. Under more equal distribution of life's blessings, the temptations to excess in the use of all kinds of nerve and stimulants would be inn measureably lessened, and in time per haps removed entirely. Place the manu- lecture and sale of all wines, ales and liquors Tn government control, with strict and constant insistance by the public that these products shall be pure and of fine quality-and the temperance problem is more than half solved. Under the present degrading conditions of an traffic, carried on for individual profit alone, deadly, crazing poisons are 'old under the names of beers, whiskeys, and the many other intoxi- ;ants.
 "One very unfortunate fes ture of the present. distribution of these spirituous Is that the rich classes absorb Ill the genuine Installations from fruit md grain, while the vile adulterations all to the share of the poor workers. These same workers seek the poisonous up in a majority of cases to drown otter niseries brought upon them by
 OPPRESSIVE SOCIAL CONDITIONS. Then again: Can we blame the toiler. vho seeing so little of any bright side of fife is attracted to the brilliantly lighted aloon, where for a few brief hours he an forget, in friendly intercourse with lis comrades, his wretched home and Il pa labor?
 Under the constant warfare of the form of society, the working lasses demand stimulants for the pur- ,ose of support under the constant drain If nervous force, exhausted in the bitter truggle for bare existence; while in he class of employers and capitalists the to seek artificial aid for over wrought brains is continually present Therefore, if we wish to go to the root If the temperance question, We must ~ afArItl--tlaxr -.l.... l