The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-24
SOCIALISTS IN DEBATE,
Competition is Discussed at
Length at Metropolitan
Temple.
BENHAM PREDICTS CONFLICT.
Success-Mrs. Eliza Wilkes
Remedy.

Competition" was the topic of discus
sion at the Metropolitan Temple last
| night at meeting under the auspices of
the American section of the Social1stic
Labor party.
There was not a very large audience
present, but it seemed appreciative enough.
Chairman G. B. Benham made rather
long speech, telling what Socialists did be-
lieve and what they did not.
"They did not believe in attempting to
remedy existing conditions" he said, "by
the retirement or conviction of men who
had misused their political positions to
the advantage of themselves and the dis
advantage of the public
| The statement published that the Social
| istic Labor party had given its countenance
to Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald in his
anti-Mongol crusade he denied. He pre-
| dlcted that conflict between labor and
capital was imminent.
Green Majors was the principal speaker.
His subject was sis Competition Sue
cess?"
There was one form of competition, he
observed, which would make man happier
and the world better, namely, a COMPETE
tlcn OF brains. He proceeded:
That is not the kind of competition which
| we have to-day, however. What we have now
| is the competition of a low cunning wherein
| the man who produces the least accumulates
the most. Capital has accumulated in combi-
nations and grown to such magnitude of
power as to dictate the legislation of mankind.
AS result of the competition of to-day ware
houses are grooming with their fullness, and
yet people are going without food, homes,
clothes and prospects.
The reason the world has not been made bet
ter by healthy competition of intellect is that
Its economies have all been wrong. / can't
conceive why man who produces wealth
should not have the enjoyment of it.
| If you ask what are the burdens upon society
to-day the pauper and the criminal and the
| ne'er-do-well are point ont. The fact is that
the millionaires are the great taxes upon So
clety. The time is fast coming when society
must destroy the millionaires or the million.
| aires will destroy society.
The speaker analyzed the material pro-
cesses of society in production, distribu-
ton and consumption, and opined that
the only solution OF the problem was the
Government to own and operate all the
machinery of production and distribution.
He would also have all profit done away
with, and the Government own all the
land, giving to no individual any other
| title than leasehold. He continued:
Competition has not been success. This
competitive system has produced hoggish de-
sire in each man to own the earth. 1t means
war, and war means destruction. The people
OF this country to-day are S31 ,00O, 600, 900 in
debt, and the interest on that much amounts
can they'ever be expected to pay the principal.
He was followed by Mrs. Eliza Upper
Wilkes, who had scheme which would
remedy the great evils of the day. This
was the exercise of the individual will over
circumstances. She said in substance:
! do not know that am socialist. I know
nothing of political economy, but do know
that there is no political alchemy which will
transmute leaden wants into golden results. 1
believe in the Individual and in that divine
| quality in man which we call soul.
| Here on this planet see an abundant excess
of everything and yet there are hundreds of
thousands who are suffering want. I think
We've made dreadful bungle of living, but L
do not think any right result can be brought
| about by outside measures alone. No legisA-
ton OF itself can ever bring about any very.
remarkable ends l am not eager for state Of
society which will take away from the in
dividual will its impulse and opportunity. 1
quarrel with the competition of to-day because
it does not give to the individual full oppor-
tunity. The survival of the fittest is but the
triumph of the brute qualities-the bulldog
nature gets to the top, while the finer, more
poetic and higher spiritual natures GO under.
Yet never will there come time when a man
who is not the master of his own passions can
hope to conquer
There is better time coming 1t will be
brought about by the triumph of the human
will over circumstances. Do not overlook the
moral basis OF all reforms and remember that
no representative Government can be expected
to be better than the individuals who compose
the Nation.
Mrs. Anna F. Smith took some excep-
tions to what Mrs. Wilkes had said. She
believed that conditions were more re-
sponsible for vice than practices, and read
an extract from a speech which Mrs.
Frances E. Willard delivered at the last
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Convention in London to show that Mrs.
Willard had at last awakened to the fact
that the poverty of the masses has more to
do with their degradation than has their
intemperance.