The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-07-20
SOCIALIST COMMON SENSE.


10 the Editor Of the Press.
VIII you kindly publish a few words on
the above thought?
In regard to common sense there seem
to be at least three classes of men.
The first class claim to possess the
/ greatest amount of it. If you charge
! members OF this class with a lack Of COM
mon sense they win point to their
money or the size of their house or the
quarter OF the town in which they live.
( With them this ends all further argument
: anything more is Impractical
There is a second class of men who
dream dreams and see visions. Ii you in
t8rrupt their visions they also become
angry because they do not wish to be dis
( turbed by what they call the unbea1 tifuI
'utllitarianisln of the world They declare
that the common sense of the first class is
only a hideous beast, devouring all it
I touches; and that their duty in life is to
+ avoid the beast These two classes
mutually hate each other. But there is
third class which is slowly and surely
rising.
This third class says to the other two
classes: You are each partly right and
partly wrong; that which is right within
you will last, that which Is wrong viii
pass away. While we are in this world
we are practical members of it, fearing
no one and Sinking nothing. 10 fear
no one is surely an idealism more diff
cult to maintain than that of any dreamer
OF dreams, 10 shirk nothing is surely
a materialrsm on the same plane with
any man in the large house. All this is
common, very common; you hear it on
every side. You hear it in socialist pro-
paganda. How, then, does the common
sense of socialism differ with any other
common sense?
1t differs in this way: Common sense
as the individualist world lives it. at its
best is a practical business capacity
coupled with a fOrethought concerning
oneself and family. Socialist common
sense is the same, but adds fOrethOught
for the whole people, One is individualist
fOrethOught the other is collectiyist
fOrethought. This latter cOlIectivism has
several names: Socialism, - applied
Christianity, - or s'the Brotherhood of
Man on earth. The name is of little
import But the condition is in fact
large common sense based upon q very
simple law that two men working for
each other can produce more wealth than
two men working against each other.
In biology, common sense, i. ex-
perience, teaches us that OYerspecializa-
tiOn destroys species. This OYerspeciallza-
t1On is always accompanied by Overpro-
lection. The capitalist class of today is
not only rapidly drifting into the first
named materialist class, but it shows all
the signs of OYerspecializatiOn and over
protection, This means the death or de-
cay of the individuaHst capital class.
Many of the rich men OF today feel this,
though they say it only when forced to
say it. Some OF them ada this statement:
If we go under, the working class will
go with us, for they are dependent upon
our capital. We are the brains, they are
the hands; and without the brains the
hands are useless.
On the other hand there is vast
amount Of skilled energy rising thought
fully from the working class. These are
being joined by other thoughtful men
the increasing power Of machinery in re-
placing hand labor, And they ask,
''What shall that labor dO?' They also
note the continually increasing amount
of capital in the hands Of a few They
note the words of men like Chauncey De-
pew when he says: Fifty industrial
magnates could stop every wheel in every
factory IN the United States !" and they
say: is this common sense?"
In the face OF all the evidence which is &C
cumulatlng the working men have reason
able cause for fear, and the socialists have
reason on their side when they claim that
common sense must be united with com
mon opportunity.
CHARLES S. FOX.