The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1906-10-19
TOM WATSON ON SOCIALISM.

TOM WATSON ON SOCIALISM.
From watson's Magazine for May.
Socialism has been tried and found
wanting
No matter what frills and founces,
Iaces and embroideries, may be placed
upon socialism, let no man doubt for
an instant that the reason why the
Have-nots. the poor, embrace It is that
they understand IT to mean an equal
division among all men Of all kinds OF
property.
collective ownership is to take
the place Of individual ownership and
ali those who now own nothing are to
be given an equal share with those
who now own everything.
The Astor estate is not the only one
to be confscated, divided up and
handed around; the fortunes Of the
Vanderbilts, the Goulds, and the
Standard Oil group are not the only
ones to be seized and distributed; ev-
er house and lot, every garden and
farm, every small accumulation OF
money, OF chattels, is to be taken
away from those who have earned 1t,
or inherited it, and there is to be a
glorious Observation-Disclosures divi-
sion Of everything among the good
and the bad, the weak and the strong,
the white and the black.
The meanest thing on the BOwery,
the flthiest haTIOt Of the Tenderloin,
will be given an equal share with the
worthiest laborer in the field Of hon
est industry, and with the yirtuOus
woman, whose pure life and lofty
character are the saving power Of the
human race.
collective ownership has it mean
ing, and that meaning cannot be
shirked.
No matter how much difference
there may be in the tomorrow Of So
ciaIism, in it's today, when it shall be
inaugurated as a system, all things
must be owned collectively, and that
means that the high and the low come
10 2. common level; the good and the
bad start even; the idle and the in
dustrious share and share alike; the
uIiterate and the learned, the capable
and the incompetent, the fool and the
wise man. the virgin and the troll, the
negro and the white, all come to the
universal brotherhood pot, and ladle
out an equal pOrringerful OF pOttage.
GodI What a sordid, sickening
dead-Ievel! What an enforced equal
fzing Of all men and all women, In
world where God never made two
grains Of sand, two leaves Of the for
est. two birds OF the air, two fish OF
the sea, two beasts Of the field ex-
LctIy equal
Only in a political sense can any
one even dream OF two men being
equal for our eyes, our common sense
ten us that such a thing as equality IN
strength. capacity, character, or in the
elements and achievements OF man
hood has no existence among men,
Socialism proceeds upon the idea
that equality is there, or can be put
there-and the effort to prove that the
idea. is correct has been made time
and again and again 1t was not only
tried among the ancients, but 1t has
been tried in modern times and 1t was
tried BY the colonists who first settled
In North America
Failure. dismal failure has been the
result Of every experiment. Why? Be
cause human nature is radically, ct
ernalIy different from what the so
ciaIist assumes it to be
II all were equal. and all were good
socialism would be unnecessaTy, even
from the standpoint OF the socialist
Give Us absolute equality and uni
versal goodness, and we don't need
anything but a little time to reach an
equal distribution OF wealth and an
era Of peace on earth and good viii to
men