The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1907-10-04
THE PURPOSE
OF SOCIALISM
Always Enlisted on the Side of
the Man Who Tolls.
CHAMPION OF LABORER
N. {. JOrgensen, of the White City So
oialist Local, Writes Interesting
Letter on the Subject.

"The struggle, renewed day after
day, to acquire the means of maintain
ing physical life, can not be called lv-
ing. Only after his bodily wants are
supplied, and leisure has been given
him can man begin to live. We do not
live during the long hours of drudgery
we undergo in obtaining the means of
keeping ourselves alive.
What, then, under existing condi-
tons, does even the longest human
life amount to. How many years -
how many days does one actually
live between the cradle and the grave ?
"To the vast multitude of civilized
mankind life is but struggle today to
win the means of giving strength to
struggle again tomorrow, for the means
to struggle again the next day, and so
on through all the years till death.
The pursuit of knowledge, the cultiva-
ton of the beautiful the enjoyment of
the fellowship of kindred souls-these
instead Of being principal affairs Of life
are things apart.
1.-THE energy Of mind and body is de-
voted to one purpose of securing the
means of living--if some day we should
chance at last to find time to live and
still be capable of living.
1.-The man who turns from this
mad whirl Of business and seeks his
life in rational pursuits who lives the
life of the heart though he be vagrant
for it in short, the genues is looked
upon with pity as an impractical fellow
or with anger, as lazy vagabond.
yet when a Shakespear wishes to
ravish the worldly mind with vision
of happy life, as in "As you like it,
he draws a picture of this very vaga-
bond existence paints a picture Of life
where business would be an imperti-
nence. Surely not the man who would
change existing conditions to some
thing happier is the utopian = the
dreamer-but rather the man who ex-
poets a fast walking world to consent
to always druge and never enjoy.
"Is happy life possible? Easily so.
Socialism will make possible a happy
life. That is socialism's only aim. To
accomplish this aim, we need only TO
change the motive and the management
of the industries which provide for the
maintenance and enjoyment of physl-
cal life. We need change nothing else.
Socialism proposes to change nothing
else.
quote the above from a phamphlet
NV G. F.. Clemens, it is very clear
conception of what life is today OF
what it ought to be and what 1t might
be under an economic system that
would not make miserable drudges OF a
very large proportion of the people.
TO day the mine owners, the manu-
facturer, the miller all those who are
owners of the means of production, pro-
duce goods not to satisfy their own wants
~ the wants of those about them but
70 sell in the markets of the world.
Today the wage-workers of the world
labor to produce food and other neces-
stiles of life, not to sustain themselves
but for wages.
And the wages for which the laborers
.ont;nue TO toll day after day, year
ofter wear. are only sufficient to main
ta;n life in their bodies in order that
.Snv NAV continue to toll to produce
r,ore wealth for the Capitalists who
own and control the means OF proauc-
.;"n ond who also control the public
.,oors of education, have taken care
, that This subject should be left out OF
v , course of study in the few months
ss scbooling which are allowed the
oh;,dren of the working class, and fur-
ther than this, the fact that you nave ,
' ,'.vs been compelled to work
, a'ws' hours at exhausting toll IN
".asr TO secure your living; may nave
,"tt vo,, in no mood to study into these 81,
lei, ,t yUs during the few hours of the
n l"", which the capitalists aliOw
eve'; y; erder that you may rest and DC
you YOU ~ 70 roll again the next day to pro,
a a''"a ", more wealth for them. But there