The independent., 1904-02-18

VIII will it be necessary that all
private industrial activity shall be
done away, that the government shall
run ALL the farms, ALL the shops"
etc. Not bit of it, is bis reply.
Why? Isn't farm one of the "nec-
essities?" And does it make any diff
ference whether it is a little so or
Lord Scully's third or half an entire
county? 1t would from a populistic
standpoint, but The Independent fails
to see any difference from the view
point of socialism.
In order to allay the fears of the
little farmers" Prof. Will assures
them that 1--WE are not proposing to
cOnfiscate one of your farms" That
may be correct; but II 1t is not done,
then socialism is. after all, nothing
but bourgeois public ownership" or
state capitalism. Ii there is ,no diff
ference in classes of business, such as
between railroad and bakery, a
bank and farm, except in magnitude
of the business transactions, then any
scheme which takes in Scully's land
and operates it collectively in the
interests of al, the people," but al
lows John Doe to keep and operate his
80, Is only halfway measure that
lacks much of being denominatei
scientific" 1t may be Prof. Wills
soclalism-but it Is depfal Of the
fundamentals upon which he processes
to~base his science.
Bourgeois public ownership" is the
sneering term Prof Will applies to
populist demands. The same thing, If
called Socialism" and advocated by
him and his following is much more
desirable. Surely Shakespeare was
mistaken. There is something III a
name. Populist skunk cabbage" un-
der his skiIlfnl manipulation, becomes
socialist ''rose!"
Populists affirm-ani socialists deny |
that there is a well-defined practical |
line of division between those indus
tries which must be owned and oper
ated by the public and those in which |
individual initiative is more desirable.
The populist position on value"
and kindred subjects is in har-
mony with this view. The socialist
surplus value" "crystallized labor"
wage worker exploitation" theory is
with any such division.
All industries are alike, il they are
carried on by wage laOor; and the
ones in which wage labor is not en-
ployed are "too little to count"
AS The Independent has said before,
the socialist program has an attrac-
ton for the propertyless wage-woIk-
err but it presents nothing for the
farmer or other business
man who operates in a small way.
Such men seek protection from the
robberies of TIE railroads and banks
and other institutions receiving spe-
cial privileges directly from the gov
or indirectly from those who
are thus favored Prof. Wills effort
to gather together propertyless wage
workers and middle class" property
owning busineps men cannot succeed.
If he abandons his "proletarian' pro-
gram, he aban5on3 socialism, no mat
ter how persistently he keeps the
name. Populism is sufficiently ad-
vanced ground for the bourgeois"
element Prof. Will is trying to gather
under the wing of socialism.
S$SSSSS&
DR.. Reemelir inquiries, What hotel
will you stop 1T in st. Louis'" The
Parker committee is called to gather
1T the New st. James, and the Butler
committee will doubtless meet there,
90. At any rate. the New st. James
Will be a convenient place for all to
gather Once there exact informa-
ion car be learned
$SSSS<A
BEN BLUNT