The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-25


FourthJThat land and all the instru-
! rnents of production should at once become
common property--the land being the free
gift Of nature-and the instruments OF pro-
duction being only O form OF labor that
grasping plutocracy has grasped ana ap-
propriated. Agriculture and manufactur-
Ing to be carried on, either under SUPER
vision of governmental inspectors or by
Independent communes, each commune
regulating Its own economic affairs and
freely exchanging Its products with other
| communes.
Finally, that this change constitutes
definite political issue, fundamental and
International 1t demands the creation Of
q party for purposes of agitation and pro-
pagandism. In this fight for long-denied
sovereignty, labor Ii reminded that all
classes, the church included, are Its I'm
placable foes. 1t further advocates that
| labor should enter at once upon the only
| crusade that will make 1t free the seizure
| of the state. This, In the main, consti-
tutes the philosophy Of political socialism.
It's teachers are for the most part mar
| row-minded, but forcible and intense. Their
philosophy, like their leaders, is narrow
and absurd, but forcible and intense.
AS we look out upon this great struggle
for existence, our hearts are touched with
think Of the wrongs perpetrated against
them, but we must in the most unhesitat-
| Ing manner protest against the means by
which they propose to remedy these con-
| ditions. Admit, II you please, but the one
| postulate Of their philosophy, that labor
| Is the source Of all value, and that to
labor all value belongs, and where do you
| land? Most assuredly, in the mud and
Quicksand, for all past experience teaches
ono undisputed fact, that brains rather
| than Drawn has been the great factor In
Industrial development.
| Let this become the philosophy Of the
| future and it would only be question Of
time before Industrial life would be as
stagnant as a mud puddle. Great corpora
| tions that give life to industry could not
be organized. railroads could not be pro-
jected, the worlds commerce must lam
guish on account Of lack of brains to run
it, and invention must cease because no
man or set Of men will put forth extraor
binary effort without the hope Of extraor-
dinary reward.
| Again, look at the doctrine that all
capital Is the result of spoliation-that is
that all these stores. homes, factories,
farms, mines, mills, etc., have been stolen
and had the laboring man had his just
deserts they would all belong to him. I
can conceive of no doctrine more per-
nicious. Let the great masses become
imbued with this idea and the reign Of
| terror would be insignificant compared
with the result. There is no surer way to
do away with thrift. industry and econ
omy than to take away its reward. Social
ism would do away with this reward in
the shape of private property.
| Socialism aims at equality. 1t would
have no capitalists, no paupers. This
is beautiful idealism, but the great trouble,
| as Herbert Spencer says, is that there Is
no alchemy by which golden conduct can
be obtained from leaden individuals" 1t
would be beautiful and unselfish thing
| If the man that can NOW three acres Of
hay in a day would say. am willing to ac-
cept the pay Of the man that can NOV
but one acre, and give the other two days
for the universal benefit of mankind. But
know of no law Of justice by which a
political party can compel a man to do
this. The only law that common sense
can declare is that every man has right
to his own superiority and the reward that
1t brings.
| The difference between man and man
rests upon natural causes and any creed
based upon other conditions is unnatural
| and obstructive. But Notwithstanding
these facts the dictum of socialism is,
From each according to his abilities; TO
each according to his wants" Edward
Bellamy's Looking Backward is social
ism idealized. 1t has fallen fiat because he
absolutely failed to show, where men
were living together in communism, any
motive by which mans best efforts could
be brought out, and without mans best
efforts We all know that society must
languish and civilization cease to progress.
av,tl no, hot slny y,t.,l,
are growing richer and the poor poorer.
This is constantly charged as one
of the accursed outcomes Of our in
dustral system. But the charge is
not true. A close examination of indus
trial England, where competition has been
free and pauperism dense, shows that the
laboring classes are better housed. better
fed better clothed. work a less number of
hours, draw better pay and their money
has greater purchasing power than ever
before. This fact seems to be as discour-
aging to Karl Marx, the great leader of
socialism, as 1t is encouraging to you and
me. for the reason that socialism prospers
well only where there is discomfort and
disbursement.
Viewed in any and every light socialism
| impresses us as being very impracticable
Suppose the state supervised all industrial
ity for an increase of political frauds and
corruption, because the field would be In
creased More offices to be filled-more
money to be handled-give greater chances
for the thief to put his hand in the bag
and steal the public funds. With few ex.
ceptions, every attempt to bring men to-
gether In a state of communism, like the
| Burk farm and Owens colony, has proved
to be an abject failure because the whole
system is impracticable. As citizens deep
ly interested In the political welfare of our
country the thing that gives US the Deep
est concern is the ultra radicalsm Of the
socialist.
In the recent London troubles, H. NJ.
Hyndman. representative socialist,
standing on the steps of the national gal
lery, made speech to the laboring men
massed around him, based upon economy.
He denounced the men who asked for
work as towards and called for a crusade
In which all laborers should stand to-
gether against the plundering capitalists.
He insisted that not charity, but justice
was the remedy for the existing distress
and justice. he declared. demanded that
the land and machinery of England should
be seized by the workingmen because their
labor alone had made 1t valuable. An
other man at the same meeting declared
that hanging was too good for the land
lord and capitalist. 1t is almost needless
to add that the shops were plundered and
police authority had to be brought into
reQuisition. This Is the logical sequence
Of the teaching that labor is the source of
all value and that to labor all wealth be-
longs To attain this end they propose to
trample constitutional measures in the
dust and resort to blood and revolution
Again every Christian sfanda vhast n .
the declaration, constantly reiterated in
their literature, that the church IL the Inn
placable enemy Of the laboring classes.
The teachers Of socialism ally themselves
with the materialistic philosophy, whose
principles are only returned to popular
form when It Is said. that thought is the
| secretion of the hralh tho soul n 1onaa