The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28
woRKINGMssN AND SOCIALISM.

, WORKINGMsGN AND SOCIALISM.
By a good many writer's and speak
ers the anarchist and the socialist are
. put in the same category, and the
most damning thing they can say of
a body of men is that they are anar-
chists or socialists The two classes,
however. are Numerically opposed.
The anarchist believes in the abroga-
ton of all law-the deposing Of all
those in authority. The aggressive
anarchists, like the Nihilists of Rus
STA, believe in bringing this about by
violence and the resistance of all au-
thority. The philosophical anarchists
believe in more peaceful methods.
The theory of the anarchist is that
in the absence of law men would do
right; that to the great majority OF
men law is not the impelling force to
right conduct; that the moral sense of
the community and the individual are
the most potent influences in shaping
the actions of the average man. This
may be true, but as in the natural
world the fear of consequences has
led men to live as near as possible in
conformity with the physical laws of
the universe, so in society, fear of
consequences has kept men in the line
of right conduct until virtue has be-
| come a habit. The time may come
when men may not require the pen
alties and restraints of law, but it
will not be in our day and generation.
L Among American-born workingmen
the theories and practices of anarch-
I lists find no place. With the principles
| Of socialism, however, it is different.
Nearly every man believes more or
less in socialism, for socialism may
briefly be defined as management by
government. Our public school sys-
TEN, the postoffice department of the
government, and the police and fire
departments of our cities are all ex-
| amples of socialism in practice-of
government management. While there
are a few individualists who believe
these could be better managed by
private corporations. they represent a
very small minority. Between these
and the extreme socialists+or colIec-
twists, as Lawrence Gronlund prefers
to call them-there is room for a vari-
ETY. of opinions.
The moderate socialists believe tina.
all public utilities-all kinds of bust !
ness in which competition cannot ou-
erate-should be under the manage
ment of the government, either NUM-
cipal or general Among these would
be included the railway, the telegraph, /
street railways, street lighting and
water supply, and other business of
like character.
We think there can be little doubt
that the sentiment is growing among
workingmen that it is the province of
government to undertake the manage
ment of enterprises of this kind. One
of the articles in the Declaration Of
reads as follows:
That the government shall obtain
possession, under the right of eminent
domain, of all telegraphs, telephones
and railroads; and that hereafter no
charter or license be issued to any
corporation for construction or opera
ton of any means of transporting in
telligence, passengers or freight.
The demands of the Federated
Trades along the line of government
ownership and management. as form
ulated at Denver last December, are
as follows:
1.-The municipal ownership of street
cars and gas and electric plants for
public distribution of light, heat and
power. The naturalization of tele-
graphs. telephones, railroads and
mines"
1t will be seen that the Federated
Trades go further than the knights
of Labor by demanding the national
ization of mines-one of the means of
production. An effort was made to
include other means of production,
but this failed.
While there are many men belonging
to labor organizations who believe {
that government should own and man
age all mines, mills, manufactures
and other means Of production-be-
coming the sole owner Of these indus
tries, the only employer Of labor-We c
think this class belongs more largely I
to our foreign-born population. 1t is {
an importation of the German social /
lstic idea. The great majority of
American workingmen believe only in G
the government ownership and man I
agement Of those great national mo- r
nopolies in which by their very nature q
the law of competition cannot operate. c
They think that the means of pro- C
AUCTION can be safely left to private t
That the laws of supply s
and demand, and of natural compe- /.
-ition will regulate prices and fix the n
returns to capital at fair interest t
Upon the investment. u
We believe they are right in this b
contention, for is it not true that the 9
thief factor which now helps to build S
Up burdensome monopolies In produc- a
i've enterprises is the control of the 8
means of transportation? This is un- h
loubtedly true of coal-mining to r
,reat degree. 1t is because the trans l;
,ortation companies are the owners of
most of the coal fields that they are 8
Lble to control the output of the d
nines the price of coal and the wages D
If the miner. 1t is through its con- o
rol of the means Of distribution that II
he Standard Oil company is able to D
the production of oil and is
reeze out competitors. The large d
companies are able to get Ii