Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-10-04
SOCIALISM IN AMERICA
. BY GAYLORD WILTSHIRE

to this conclusion if he based his
observations upon the number of
Socialists in the country, and more
particularly, perhaps, if upon the
number of men in prominent posi-
tions socialistically inclined. He
will find nothing in America of the
outward manifestation of Socialism
which is seen in the great Europe
an countries.
For instance, in France and Italy
and England there are members of
the existing governing cabinets who
are pronouncedly socialistic and,
in fact, were made members ON ac-
count of their socialistic views.
In America, ON the other hand,
certainly no man in the public
view who is known as Socialist
would be thought of for moment
as a possibility in the cabinet,
nor in fact is there any one who
would be considered to have any
great political force. This is not on
account of there being no men of
force among the Socialists, but
merely because Socialism itself has
not gained the public sympathy suf-
ficiently to allow its professors to
have any great political Importance
1t is true that the Socialist vote
in the United States is increasing
rapidly. In 1900 the presidential
vote was 125, III. In 1904 the
Socialist vote for president was
445,781 The Socialist party OF
ganization has over $1,000 dues
paying members. There are prob
ably forty Socialist organs, weekly
and monthly, in the United States,
two of which, one a weekly and
one monthly, have over 800, 900
circulation each.
There is every evidence that the
Socialist vote in the next Preisden-
tial election will have another large
increase, and probably will range
somewhere near the 1000 mark
as minimum, and if conditions are
favorable owing to, say, the Demo-
cratic party nominating Bryan or
some other conservative, for in So
cialist circles Bryan is looked upon
as a conservative, the vote may be
up near the million mark.
However, Socialism is not to be
judged in America from the num-
Der of prominent men within its
ranks, nor by the number of votes
it casts, nor by the circulation OF
its newspapers. The status OF So
cialism in America should be deter
mined by the economic condition of
the country. If conditions are fa-
vorablc to Socialism, then if Social
ism is not present it's purely an &C
cident, and it is only question of
time when it will develop.
The basic demand of Socialism is
that the worker should have the
control and ownership of the means
of production himself, inasmuch as
when the control of the means of
production rests in the hands of a
class-the capitalist class-the
worker is necessarily at the mercy
of that class.
Now, the further removed we
are from the possibility of individ-
ual ownership of the tools of pro-
duotion through their growth in
size, the greater the necessity OF a
change of system which will put
them back into the hands of the
worker by means of collective own
ership through the state, the great
er the necessity of public owner
ship.
In America, Notwithstanding
there is not the development of So
cialism as yet compared with Eu-
rope, yet the conditions which
make the soil fertile for its growth
are much more perfect here than
in any other country, and, there
fore, there is every reason to say
that Socialism is sure to soon make
its appearance in the United States
as the great political power of the
nation. Just as a field has to be
plowed and narrowed to be ready
for the sowing of the seed, so the
political field in this country has
had to go through such preliminary
overturnings before the Socialist
could successfully sow his seed.
That the ground is now ready is
evident by the growth of the mo-
nopoly, the concentration of capital.
The muck-raker, too, is one of the
men moving the impossibility of
our continuing under the present
system. He is showing us that no
man seems to be free from the pol
luton, that the conditions under
which our principal food supply is
produced are degrading to the
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