The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-24
EDWARD E. HALE ON SOCIALISM
Some Definition of the States Relation
Thereto


which people had a few years age
about using the word Socialist"
think people are finding out that in a
way we are all socialists If so, it is
easier to make an effort to draw the
line between the work of an individual
who is doing what a man ought to do
for himself and that other social work
which we throw, and ought to throw,
on the church, on the state, or on some
other organization.
The man who buys share in the ell
evated railroad company is so far a so
cialist. The man who insures his house
in a mutual company is so far a social
list. In modern life, indeed, very few Of
us live lives so like Robinson Crusoe's
that we are not sometimes Socialists"
True, you can conceive Of man who
lives in his own cave, gathers his own
leaves for his bed, washes his own face
in the brook which goes by, picks his
| own acorns and cheStnutS and pig-nuts
for his own breakfast, dinner and sup
per. But there are not many such men.
Most of US are to a certain extent, so
cialists because socialism is more COM
| Portable and easy than separate life,
which, indeed, ARENAS Ward would de-
scribe as a "cussed life"
In the northern part of the United
Statesthis socialist impulse is in the
very heart of our history and of our ad-
ministration. Thus the Pilgrim fathers
and mothers would never have come
over if each of them must go alone to a
passenger agent and take a separate
| ticket for the voyage. None of the ten
| thousand people who came to the bay,
with Winthrop and afterward, would
have come here but that the company
chose to come So soon as they arrived,
| the community or company took upon
itself certain duties, which have made
all New Englanders socialists ever
since First Of these seems to have
been the making Of roads, Without
discussion, apparently, the state took
upon itself the making and mainte-
nance of roads All the people had to
contribute in work, labor or money
perhaps in ALL Then all could use the
road without any special tax. In this
way Washington street in Boston,
which has cost much more than the
Boston and Albany railway, has always
been free to everybody, without PEN
ny being required for the use from any
traveller going over it. Justice is an
other commodity which the state has
from the beginning furnished without
price to all In Latin countries, it
sometimes happens that the litigants
pay the judges, but not so with us
What is called the payment of costs is
confined literally to the payment of the
specific costs of actual procedure.
The fathers knew the step they took
when they introduced public education
for boys They went farther than
their fathers in the German forests had
gone They highly determined that UNI
iverSal education is a necessity for the
state The state, therefore, must pay
for It, AS in the case of the costs Of
trial, the individual might be made TO
pay for the slate and pencil, the ink and
paper used In the school, even for the
wood burned in the fire. But for the
school-house and the teacher the state
paid from the common treasury Grad
ually, and so far as is known without
discussion, girls were introduced to the
same school privileges with boys
There had never been a moments
hesitation as to military service or ser
vice at fires, so far as men were con-
cerned The state would and did COM
mand the service of every man able to
bear arms 1t did not ask his personal
opinion as to the cause in which he was
to fight He might regard King Philip |
as an incarnation of truth, purity and
Justice All the same, he must provide
his own gun and go and fight King |
Philip when the state bade him. A |
this moment the fire warden, or other |
officer in command may, If he choose, |
order any citizen to do any duty in the |
extinction of fire; and that citizen /
must obey.
In almost all these cases-indeed, in |
almost all cases--these young democra-
cies of America were In advance of Eu- |
rope, as indeed they are to-day. Thus |
from the beginning the state compelled
the registration of wills and deeds, and .
paid for It, From the beginning the
state assumed the charge of light-hous-
IS and buoys, and paid for them. From
the beginning the towns granted the use
If the large ponds" In just the same
spirit the state makes the beeches free
20 all, and provides convenient landing
places. The state never faltered in the
'ather curious detail of substituting
light for darkness 1t lighted the
streets at night by the COMMON
and 1t was not till the rdicu-
Gus greed of some private companies
nterposed that any one tried to restrict
such common action.
SO soon as the gathering Of large
required a generous sup
by of water to be brought from a dis
ance, the state undertook this supply ,
It the common charge.
Such are instances of duties which in
eudal countries were seized by individ-
lals or corporations which wanted to
AXE private profit. In our democracies
he state assumed these duties as a
natter of course. So, from the begin
ing, the state assumed the charge of
he post-office.
The effort has not been made, per- {
APPS, with sufficient deffniteness to
raw scientifically the line between the
lass of duties assumed by the state
nd those left in private hands. When l
'harles Dickens landed in this country
lg that the state of Massachusetts pro- q
ided the insane hospital for any and =
lr all of its citizens. 1t had not oc-