The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-10-27
FALLACIS OF SOCIALIST.
the Highest Type of Indi=
VidualiSm.

The interest in the Social Science
Club is increasing, and there was a
large attendance at the meeting Tues
dayevenIng. The question under discus
sion was ''rhe Fallacies of Socialism"
The paper was. read by Rev. A. r.
Taylor, and was brief review of the
position taken by leading 'advocat ties,
and showing wherein, with man in
his present state, their ideal could
not be reached; That there must be a
moral change, an elimination of self
ishness from man toseffect the change
in society desired. Otherwise the
change material will be an utter fail
ure. The main points of his paper
were that it was fallacy Of socialism
that labor was the only element to be
counted in production. There were
other elements though they might be
small. Another fallacy he said was
that each worker coulds receive the
actual result of his labor, because in
every instance that result could not
be actually determined and it would
be impossible to agree upon it as at
present. 1t was a third fallacy, he
sa d, that every man rcOuld receive
perfect justice if he were paidathe ex-
act value of his work. Capacity to
work is not wholly matter of per-
Sonal merit, but to large extent a
matter of inheritance, A fourth fall
lacy was the attempt to dam the
stream of progress against the 2devel-
opement of selffShnesS, viz: the
abuses of capitalization, and so get
selfishneSs out of the world. The
trouble is inside of men and will show
in some way so long as it is there.
Another fallacy is that true liberty
can result from coercion. or true de-
velopment from constraint. 1t must
be spontaneous in it's issue, not forced.
"Heaven is not made up of the fright
ened in We do nOU learn 20 walk by
being carried. We are not carried to
the skies on fiowery beds or any kind
of bed. We are not carried at all. We
have to climb-use our own legs"
Still another fallacy of the radical
and revo utionary socialist is that we
can break absolutely with an econOm-
ic present or past. Such movements
cannot be brought about suddenly,
and if they could and the present and
past have been wrong. what hope can
be given that the future will be right.
This in brief is the summing up of
the points he covered.
In the discussion which followed it
was denied from a socialistic point of
view that the change would be
radical or revolutionary; that on the
other hand it would come gradually,
step by step. That individualism
would not grow less, but broader, be-
cause the individual would have more
time for intellectual pursuits. The
arguments against socialism brought
out the point that it distrusted the
individual, looked upon him as unfit
to handle the affairs of life, and then
trusted him to unlimited degree
when taken in a collective sense. The
idealism which socialism would like
to attain was not attacked, simply
the methods by which it attempts to
reach the ideal.
There seemed to be general feel
ing that there were features about So
ciaIism that could be put into prac-
tice to the advantage of man
kind; that natural monopolies which
are now largely absor bed by trusts,
ought to be controlled by the govern
ment in the interest of the masses;
the individual to be left free in the
other walks of life, and that in this
way the highest ideal of individual
ism would be realized, and society
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