The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-10
A REJECTED LETTER,

sOCIALIsM-WHAT 1T IS AND WHAT 1T
IS NOT.
To the Representative:
Today mail to the Times a commune
cation Of which the following is an exact
copy. If that paper refuses to publish it,
I wish you would do so and then give
them a scoring. l am the representative
of a new York house In this section. Re-
spectfully. etc., DAVID PLUM.
The Times did not publish the letter
referred to,and so we give it place.
To the Editor of the Times:
In your issue of yesterday you have an
editorial on "The Fundamental law OF
Liberty" into which you inject lot of
falsehood. It is a falsehood resulting
either from ignorance or political dishon
esty. cannot think it is the former. In
this editorial you class anarchists, social
lists and communists as belonging to the
same body, or party. The writer is con-
slant reader Of your paper, and has been
Republican from 1856 to the present
hour; so that he does not write from the
standpoint Of a Populist or Social Demo-
crat. If understand socialism, it Is the
advocacy of the public ownership of public
uLIllUlCS-Ouly LulS duu uOlAAA6 AAOA ..
Hence, ex-Postmaster General Wannama-
ker is a Socialist; as he devotes much
space in his last report to government
ownership of the telegraph.
Socialists believe the governments, mu-
nicipal, county, state and national, should
| own all telegraph, telephone and railway
lines, lands, coal and oil mines, for the
reason that these are public utilities. No
| Socialist advocates the unlawful taking
of private property, and never did.
Because the anarchist or communist,
| also, advocates Tor may Iadvocate) the
| same things, proves nothing. Bank and
| train wreckers, defaulters embeZZlers and
| thieves often are found to be leading
members of the Republican party; but
you would scarcely judge the party by
such standard. And yet you could just
as honestly do this as to write such an
article as 1 am reviewing.
The Socialist believes that the public
ownership of the railways etc., is as right,
necessary and proper as that of the jails,
poor houses, wagon roads, court houses,
schools etc. And as to the coal lands, he
asks, what right have private parties to
speculate in coal more than in sunlight
and air?" Al to land he says if the rich
man can buy fifty million acres of the
| puDllC uOIudlu anu lCI II Ilo lulC duU uI1VC
you and me off it, then they have the right
to buy up all the earth and drive man
into the sea. The Socialist does not ad-
vocate the taking of these lands for moth
ing. He says the state should sell no
more, and reclaim those already sold.
When so reclaimed the price of coal to
the poor would be determined by the price
of labor instead of the price of labor being
fixed by the price of coal or the cOnscien-
ces of the coal combine. Do not play the
political coward and refuse. to print this
And when YOU reply to it do not dodge the
issue by discussing matters of detail as tt
how the lands, coal mines, railways etc.
are to be obtained and run; as this will be
begging the question.
Either assert that it is right for few
to possess the whole earth and drive the
rest into the sea, or else say the principle
is wrong. The Socialist says, if the few
were not allowed to pocket the profit!
arising from the appropriation of these
public utilities, the wealth of the worlt
would be more generally diffused.
l have now given you the outlines o
socialism. Tens of thousands of Repub
licans are yearly embracing its doctrines
And, as many Of them, like the writer
stood in trenches, waded rivers, climbed
mountains, and carried ammunition from
the pouches of the dead and the dying t.
replenish their own cartridge boxes-di,
it all to save the old flag-they do no
believe they are enemies to the republi
because they embraced the socialism here
in outlined; neither do they like to patron
ize papers which call them anarchists.
DAVID PLUM.
Balaton Mimi, July 3, 1895.