The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-21
THE Usefulness OF SOCIALISM.


and elevation. P. f. Lyons, Observer.
THE Usefulness OF SOCIALISM.
He who has learned to accept, from
either theology or Individual expert
ence and reflection, the Supreme Wis
dom that creates. shapes and directs
everything from the stellar system to
the imperceptible bacilli, is driven to
account for the things that seem unac-
countable, the usefulness of things ap-
parently useless, upon lines that run
parallel with those that, accounting
for the existence of the useful, run
toward the ultimate good. The same
wisdom that hides the mystery of our
individual origin and destiny, has
wisely hidden the deep reasons that
underlie the existence and account for
the activity Of the apparently useless;
but none the less is he who accepts
the Supreme Wisdom compelled to ad-
nit that they have their use in the
great scheme of humanity. Usefulness,
from the individual point of view, is
Z.
are quite sure that the socialist, under
his various guises, is a deterrent force
in society and, consequently, useless;
while we doubt not he as complacently
regards himself as the beneficent force
and us as inert, unprogressive crea-
lures, a drag to impede progress.
But, when one can get away from
his Impotence over these impracticable
schemes, with a consideration of which
the socialist of one or another stripe
is constantly irritating society, get
where one can look at him as a part
Of a whole and a factor in conditions
we all admit are mixed of good and
evil, one begins tO realize that this
dIsturber, agitator, dreamer is a need
full force in this multiplex, intricate
problem that the Supreme Wisdom is
working out on this planet, with scant
regard for individual comfort but
with tenacious will and care for the
type. Indlvdualism, without check or
balance, it must be admitted is con-
crete selfishness with a tendency to-
L
all are endowed in greater or less
measure with impulses of generosity,
charity and repugnance to wrong, at
least in others. We all feel our in
dignation rising at tales Of oppression
or variations of fraud and we all feel
glow when some noble action stirs
our better natures. We all look back
upon the lOwly conditions in which
our ancestors not very remotely lived
we all see with dislike survivals of the
forces that caused those conditions
and we all dream of a time when the
Things evil in life will vanish before
that universal brotherhood that will
come when all men are just and love
their neighbors quite as ardently as
they love themselves.
But it must be confessed that these
endoWments are not equally distribut-
ed; that there are yet among us those
IN whom individualism is in it's raw
est state, such as the promoters and
managers of trusts, for one instance
and that among us who call ourselves
1ndividualists, modified by these finer
impulses, there is a disposition to LET
matters drift, limiting our assistance
10 the general scheme of individual
eEorts and example, and taking very
little stock in organized efforts. espe-
cially If coercive, in advancing the
general rate of progress It is here
that the socialist, whatever his inn
mediate fancy, finds his use in the
broad scheme. 1t would be a mistake
to conclude that, because he reaches
after the unreachable, he is wasting
energy, or that because he annoys us
with his striving that he is useless.
There is residuum of result for all
this expenditure of effort Two thou
sand years Of Christian effort has not
made men Christlike but no one can
doubt that men are more humane for
1t. No one with a half-century's retro
spect, nearly coterminous with IFS in
ception, but can see that the tremen-
dous energies given to prohibition have
not been utterly wasted because the
liquor traffic and the drink habit still
exist. In the. greater general sobrietv
of the mass he can find the benefcent
result of their activities, always an
noying and frequently reactive.
Even where the socialist acts and
fails, as in the South Australia viii
lagos, or Brook Farm, or Topolobampo.
or in those other not infrecuent in
stances where he succeeds in enlisting
the government in some branch of his
general scheme, as in sugar bounties
or protection TO infant industries. or
state prohibition Of liquor, he serves
a useful purpose. If one but takes a
look embracing enough. He may have
learned nothing from his failure; he