Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-13
Leave Road for Quicksanu.

rough, hilly and dangerous, which inter-
poses many difficulties between them and
the point they desire to reach, and who,
impa tient of these difficulties, propose, in
stead of improving the road, to take short
cut across a quicksand. They never pause
to inquire whether it would not engulf the
pedestrian. 1t is not the road, therefore it
must be better than the road. Such is their
simple logic. What socialism is in detail, as
a constructive scheme, they make no at
tempt to investigate. They allow it to i'm
press their imagination like building seen
in dream, but they never inquire. as prac
teal builders are bound to do, whether such
a building is a structural possibility or not.
They never consider in detail the principles
of its structure at all
Socialism, according to Mr.. Mallock, first
became an organized movement when a
great thinker, Karl Marx, arose and sup
piled 1t with foundation in science. Be-
fore that 1t was plea sing as a prospect Of
Utopia, but socialists themselves regarded
1t then as inaccessible. With the rise of
Marx the multitudes began for the first
time to feel that knowledge was on their
side and that the desirable was also in
sober truth the obtainable. Mr. Mallock
summed up, the practical outcome Of the
scientific economics Of Marx in the formula
| which is now the watchword of all popular
socialism. ''All wealth Is due to labor;
| therefore all wealth ought to go to the
laborer."
This doctrine" said the speaker, "has
been and still is the basis of socialism as
working appeal to the majority. 1t en-
ables the preachers of socialism to say to
the manual workers. who in all communi-
ties must constitute the vast majority of
the population: You, and you alone. pro-
duce all the wealth of the world. Each of
you, hour for hour, contributes an equal
share to it; and each of you is, conse-
quently, entitled to an equal share of the
dividend. "
Mr.. Mallock said that he proposed to take
this theory of production, which was the
basis of popular socialism. for the starting
point Of his series of lectures.
Analysis Of Theory.
Il hope to show YOU" said he, that in
spite Of the FEASIBILITY with which the
| ingenuity of Marx invested it this basic
doctrine of so-called scientific socialism
| is the greatest intellectual mares nest of
| the century that is lately ended; and, not
combining myself to any merely negative
| criticism, l shall endeavor to put before
you what the human factors in production
really are. We shall then see that the
! analysis of Karl Marx bears as little rela-
| ton to the actual facts of the case as the
| old analysis Of matter into fire, water earth
and air bears to the actual facts of chem
| istry as modern science has revealed them
| to u.s."
| Mr.. Mallock added that notwithstanding
the objections ordinary common sense sug-
gests to the doctrine that all wealth is
Il
| labor, many eminent men still accept and
! enunciate that doctrine axiom. Per-
| sons ask why, if it is really absurd, it has
| not been exploded and exposed long ago.
| The chief answer to this, in Mr.. Mallock' s
| opinion, Is that the doctrine in question is
| embodied and is every day repeated in the
| language of what is called the orthodox
| science of economics.
| Socialism" said the speaker. becomes
| definite and distinctive doctrine only
| when the word labor is taken in an ex-
| elusive sense and stands exclusively for
| those ordinary manual efforts by which, as
! Count Tolstoi says, the palms of the hand
are hardened; all other forms of effort and
| the claims based on them being ignored.
| The truth of the matter is that the varieties
| of human effort involved in the production
| of modern wealth are not one, but two;
and that these differ not only in degree of
productivity. but in kind-in the very nature
| Of their operation; and that economists
who attempt to explain the production of
wealth today. while giving single name
| to two kinds of effort, are like man who
| insists putting his hands into boxing
gloves as a preparation for taking to
pieces the delicate works of a chronometer'