New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-05-31
WHAT SOCIALISM is.
, Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: In the issue of The Tribune May o.
under the caption Non Socialist Socialism"
timely observations are made on the tendency
among writer's and speakers to muddle the term
socialism" using 1t in connection with municipal
ownership and operation of public utilities, etc.
The Tribune is quite correct. but It did go far
enough. The fact is that mere public ownership
and operation of industry. municipal State,
does not constitute socialism. What, then. is
socialism?
Modern socialism. s red by Karl Marx. its
founder. and as understood ~ every well Informed
socialist has two sides-a theoretical and a prac-
teal side The theory attempts to explain present
industrial society. The practical side demands
socialist state which shall work the ideals OF
socialism. The theory holds that labor with al
most the sole emphasis upon wage labor creates
all values; that capital creates nothing and
above what labor has alread-- embodied In II a. q,
capital simply transfers its labor created utilities
TO the commodity prOduced); that land likewise
creates nothing; that the employer. who ASSEMBLIES
the capital and labor and establishes and directs
industry, creates nothng-n other words. that all
the values created to-day in industry attrib-
utable solely To labor, and especially wage labor.
All profits interest and rents regarded theft.
They are Extracted" mainly from wage labor by
means of the forces that dominate present industry
under social convention. This fund of profit. in
terest and rent c'surplus valued is wrung from
labor because wages under competition neces-
sarily forced down to bare subsistence while labor
actually values equal TO its wage In fraC
ton or the working day. what labor creates over
and above wages is surplus value" and II goes.
because OF the private ownership of the instru-
ments Of production. TO capitalists land owners
and employers, who mere parasites upon
cety. That is to say under competition and pri-
waite property wage labor is being robbed to-day of
from one-half to three-quarters OF what II pro-
duces.
The socialist state or socialism in practice-what
is it? The abolition of private property in capital
The confscatiOn of all capital and business by the
state. The organization and management of all
industry by the State controlled by the ''peO-
pie The placing of every man, woman and child
pay tie State shall determine. The distribution
of the total income Of society, chiefly among what
to-day wage workers: l. G.. what goes
wages. profits, interest and rent, will all go
wages.
This is socialism; nothing else is socialism
Should the State own and operate all business.
that would not be socialism. The core Of
socialism. then is ths-labor (wage labor creates
all value. The brains of employer. the capital the
land. create nothing. All that goes to individuals
profit interest or rent Is theft from labor. The
State should restore TO labor Its rights by
fscating all capital and industry and by operating
them for the sole benefit those who produce
what the State will pay them or die.
The Tribune Is right when ii calls for clear
thinking and judlcoUs definition with reference to
socialism. Thousands of intelligent persons in
calling themselves socialists" when they not
and I'm calling things ''socialistic' when they
soluteIy false and wholly pernicious. Municipal
watcrworks, street railways, baths, lodging houses
bakeries more Socialism than the free
dom OF tho individual under ordered government is
'anarchism." DEI.MER =. HAWKINS.
Syracuse University. May q, 1902.