The Topeka state journal., 1897-08-23
A NIAGARA OF WORDS.
Under Which R. w. Turner
OverWhelms Socialism.
Calls it "Delirium" in Some
DeliriOus Language.
wading in Deep Water Which occa-
sionally Goes Over His Head
An aAnswer" to Ct. g.
Clemens.

w. Turner discusses socialism with
C q Clemens as follows in a WTleleh
article lately composed: oo
Leaving Kansas in the spring OF 1903
Cor Fy1lropa and not returning until thS
autumn of 1898 I was upon my return
entirely unacquainted with the r1se . alau
growth of PopuliSrn. From the nlstohy
then current was LED 70 regatu re.So1 ~ % =
socialstic party, and Tor tnaI .sa Lessotl, ~
among others, gave my best enorts "
defeat 1T But a better ACQUAINTANCE
with it's membership convinced me lnae a.
the masses OF the party are opposeu 70
socialism while a few OF It's profnhenl
members advocate it. There IS So
called socialism that IS prac.cn cue I,osiai stt
and school systems, but the pure social
ism S taught by Marx, Fourier, be
bel, Proudhon and few kansans, -
not only inpracticable but it is positive
ly delirious 1t means the abolition or
wealth as an individual possession, lhe
extension of combinations in all direc-
tions, the suppression OF commerce.
banks, boards of trade, cred1t anu III
est on capital, the middle classes, piu-
tocracy, renting, salary, money, the IN
word, it aims to abolish ali eX1suns JuI-
Idle economic and social order Tor the
purpose of creating new Worlo whose
economic beatitudes are ali concentra-
ted in an anonymous collectlVlty, OF
commune. That is, an automatic world,
founded on the specialization OF the pro
ducts of mans labor, resting back In
the theory of Karl Marx that the cost
of the representative earnings or day S
labor is the universal measure OF val
ues and that each should be for all and
all for each
ssSuch are the aims and foundations
of pure socialism. 1t is a deSpotlc ana
authoritative absorption of all indiVld-
61al energies in a nationwide commune
1t is a conception SO extraordinary ana
so audacious, so full of apparent mar
monies. that at first blush one is unable
to- determine whether it be a work OF
some admira bic superhuman being or
the marvellous creation of scient1hc
seniusS who, dominated by a most de-
plorable pessinisrn, has grOped in the
oozing putrefaction of social ulcers, dis
covered what is unjust in economics,
trembled at the sight of antagonistic in
0ereStS, and been hOrrOriZed by the mis-
cries of the poor and the superabund-
ance of the rich, and who, in his slough
of despond has become distracted, al
lowed his mind to wander through in
finite spheres, not to gather rhythms or
colors, not to extricate himself by con-
temptation of the eternal architecture
of the universe, but to build for himself
a subjective, chimercial world; in other
words, a castle in the air. Forgetting
that a man must constitute the world,
forgetting mans psychological and
physiological elements, forgetting here
dity, tradition and the very air man
breathes, he peoples his fantastic world
with abstract beings. He has manu-
featured harmonies based in illogical
hypothesis and f1esh-colored his beau
tiful and perishing ideal to flush felicity
on human society; he has created an
ideal in attempting to realize good. A
beautiful aspiration; but what poetic
soul, influenced by a love of conscience
and humanity, in those infinite abstrac-
tionS in which one feels the IongingS of
his most ethereal nature-rays myster-
ious of a far-off Hght-has not felt at
times irresistible impulse to create
an ideal to realize a shadow.
Pure socialism is the dream of a
diseased brain. It is deIirium. It's foun-
datfon principles are as Utopian as the
theories of Owen; it's plans as chimeri-
cal as those of a Fourier; the Utopia of
Thomas More; the apothegm of Proud
hon-a1 of which systems tend to cause
a wholesale suicide of existing social
conditions 1t kills individual initia tive;
strangleS personal interest; murders lib
erty and crucif1eS all motives for devel-
Opment of heart and brain. What does
socialism want? What are its aims? 1t
is not a passing cloud. 1t is the strug-
gle between the dispossessed and the
possessor. It is the eternal hydra of his
tory. 1t was born with prehistoric man
in the disputed cave. 1t slept in the
bosom of oriental despotisn. Provoked
in Sparta the rising of the lower classes
Inspired by the thoughts of Plato, it
prompted Greece in the eternal stri1g-
giles for spoils and vindications. It was
the root of Roman revolution. In the
middle ages, in a municipal form, it
faced the feudal castle. 1t rose in the
sixteenth century with the reformation;
shattered the ancient hierarchy and
when in modern times it was vanquish-
thought extinct. But at present in it's
essence and forms. it is a character that
absorbs the attention of the socfologist
Preoccupies the statesman, frightens the
possessor, agitates the passions and pre-
sentS to the century the greatest prob
lem of history. 1t provokes Iamenta-
tIons. excites misery and awakens the
torpid appetite of a great part of the
popular mass. With energetic voice it
points to the fact that history many
times records the conffscation of the
property of the church by the state
and it rises to ask that the state con-
hScate by the exercise of the same
power the possessions of the rich, to the
END that ind vidual property be convert
ed into COLLECTIVELY. 1t says, You COM
s menced with the church; now descend to
the wealthy down through all grades of
society to the hunblest, and possess the
state of all property. Then each will be
for all and all for each. Property is
robbery
In this last sentence is converged all
socialistic and dema gcgical currents. In
ats profound depths they all center and
stop Socialism is opposed to every an
EVrCT1 10TO r1ra1 1orwv