The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-12

for coal or an errand to the Office of
the gas company or water company
or laundry. He had a wife who came
between him and all of these chores.
They were attended to, how he did not
know. Now 1 would like the city to
come between me and all these chores;
do them for me. The best hotel is
where there is the most done for you
and the least required of you. There
is nothing valuable gained by climbing
stairs. There is nothing valuable lost
by going on the elevator. 1t is OBJ
jected to socialism of the kind called
natiOnalism that it breaks down COM
petition between individuals, but where
is there any competition now? There
is consolidation, and that is what saves
time.
Mr. Coils Huntington writes that the
more railroads under one management
the better. 1 think you will agree with
him. Only as comptroller of these roads
I prefer the United States to Mr.. Hunt
ington or the late Mr.. Gould. These
men uncOnSciOuSly taught socialism.
Time was when you were shopping you
had to run all over town, now there are
stores in large cities where you can hnd
what you want from a paper of tackS to
a ham. Consolidation is the word of to-
day. Vermont had not been much of
country alone, but as a part of the ma
ton she is a good deal of country.
/ am as ready to buy meat of the Uni
ted States as to buy it of Mr.. Armour.
He never explains to me why it is that
cattle are low, but that am paying
right along the same old price for steaks
1t is the object that if we go along
much further into socialism there win
be no more investors or poets. do not
believe that Burns was thinking about
money when he was writing the beg
CARS OPERA" or Mary in Heaven"
am sure he was not. Milton received,
believe $25 for Paradise Lost" 1 do
not suppose he was thinking of what he
would receive. Milton was busy in
heaven and hell, and SO busy that he
had no mind for anything else. He was
looking at Satan and Michael and such
people, and not at the bookseller. His
mind was wholly taken up with Satan's
great Seige and assault and defeat The
bargaining spirit does not go with the
inventive, constructive gift. take it
that Shakespeare was an actor by pro-
fession and wrote for the pure delight
there is in creating.
James Whitcomb Riley had made a
reputation before he thought of making
a dollar. He had no more thought of
wages than a bluebiTd. He writes now
for the pleasure he finds in it. But the
wages were an afterthought. You near
the phrase christian socialism There
is such a thing The motto of this kind
of socialists suits me very well. From
a man according to his power, to man
according to his needs" That is chris
tian.
Suppose a woman has the gift of a
wonderful voice. RecolIect it is a gift,
cultivated, but a gift. Is that not
enough with SOOQ llNlLS I1C4 OuSI-
ness is to go up and down the world,
and please the people. Sing to the
world, to the poorest. Is not that, with
a sufficient living enough?
What a salary that is, to delight the
world, to add that to a sufficient living?
But to pervert a gift of God into
means to build up a castle filled with
splendid tinsel to die, having sung only
to those who can spare SIS. That is not
socialism nor christianity That is
purely heather business.
Socialism says to genius, you are
dearly paid in having genius. You shall
not lack any good thing. But you shall
not make merchandise of it. Your
genius is a gift from God for you to
give to His children and die famous and
beloved. You are forbidden to die with
a lot of useless dollars about you ana
still not having done your work
But there is another half of the So
cialist text.
ITO man according to his needs
Here is a man with no genius, no talent
no faculty-born tired. He is as help
less as the man on the Jericho road that
the Levite and Pharisee would not look
at. He cannot do anything, but he
needs as much and more than Column
bus. It is a sufficient privation to him
to know that he is helpless. Feed him,
cIothe him. shelter him. He needs more
than any genius to compensate him, il
possible, for his lack of faculty. OF OPP
portunity. That is my kind of social
ism, and also the only kind of chris
tianity.
1t is objected that socialism is pater-
nalism. I can see some sense in that
when the government is by Emperor
William. But when the government is
''by the people," paternalism suits me.
The will of the people is not at present
comforta BILE. Some say it is not habi-
table and go out of it-within a year 1
have been to the funerals of IL suicides.
They were MORALLY tired OF this kind of
living. I was called to their funerals
because I did not blame them.
William Morris insisted on this rea-
sonable claim: 1T is right and neces-