Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-05

| abolition of class distinction, the appropriation of all land and indus
 trial and commercial establishments
 throughout the civilized world. The
 Emancipation of the proletariat" Is
 the cry and Marx tells us that the
 proletariat, the lowest stratum of our
 present society. cannot stir, cannot
 rouse itself up without the whole
 superincumbent strata official, being
 sprung up into the air"
 And when this social revolution
 shall have been accomplished wha.
 then? Why, of course, peace, con-
 tentment. harmony, happiness unal-
 loyed--a condition of affairs that the
 world has never yet known. even
 when Adam had but two sons. a con
 dition of affairs that the world can
 not know till man be remade. The
 fruit of his labor will go to the
 workman says the socialist. But
 how? Will everything be al-
 lowed to go along in chaotic
 disorder and every man take
 helter sketer what he chooses?
 There will soon be again classes and
 competition, and might will rule
 right as 1t does now in some cases.
 Will there not have to be some regu.
 lating power if we avoid a complete
 paralysis of industrial affairs? If
 so, shall the power be the people
 lndiscriminately or the people ruling
 through their representative? If
 the former then there will be noth-
 ing but disorder; if the latter, then
 there will be a governing class and
 the chimera of the abolition of class
 distinction vanishes. What is need
 ed in socialists platforms is lit
 tie more definiteness of detail. The
 vague, hay indeterminateness Of
 socialism consisting in the recital of
 social, political and economic evils
 and cry for revolutionary up.
 heaval leaves us in the dark as to
 practical working details.
 It would perhaps be a waste of
 time to attempt to prove that so-
 cialism is international. That I be- lleve is it's crowning glory and the lauded boast The Erfurt Pro- gramme declares the international character: The interests of the working classes are identical in all
 lands governed by the capitalist
 method of production Therefore the emancipation of labor is a task in which the workmen of all civilized lands have share. The joint con- mittee of socialist bodies in England ratified the Erfurt Programme. The Chicago platform pledged the fidelity to the principles of interna- tional socialism as embodied in the united thought and action of the so- cialists of all nations.
 But why introduce the question of internationalism since perhaps no socialist would wish to deny 1t? The object is to show tha. sometimes | socialist committees are not always | honest when they publish the pro- gramme of the socialist party. They conceal what might be unwholesome l features in some particular country. We for example hear little of Marx ian philosophy in the various effu- slons that are given to the public ill America. Even so we'll informed man as Professor Ely has asserted that the Marxian theory is un-Amer- ican. There was reason for the great socialist lead CTS opinions were too radical, too to be agreeable to the American palate. Yet there have been among the American socialists those who are honest enough to face the truth. The People. the organ of the socialist labor party, in its issue of January 12, 1900, says: Among thegmen whom the condi. tions of the nineteenth century reared up as the mouthpiece of the revolution, will stand pre- eminent. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.' Morris Hellquit of the socialist party in his History of so- cialism in the United States calls Marx the father of scientific social sm." The same Hellquit assigns a reason why the Marxian nature of socialism should have been concealed n the beginning. It was the want of harmony with American ideas and institutions, the bureaucratic mode of procedure and organization, the strict enforcement of party disci- ,line History of Socialism in U. S., ? 41-54D Frederick Heath (Brief History of Socialism PIP 54, 55) tells , IS: Socialism had little attraction Or the Yankee lover of freedom ana 70 it had to make way historically or distinctively democratic type, ,arty standing for social democracy. Both Heath and Hellquit inform us hat for the special purpose of adopting socialism to American jews and habits the socialist party l vas formed by Eugene Debs.
 There can hardly be any doubtyof he identity of Marxian with Amer can socialism. Socialists appeal to heir platform but the object of their 'latforms is not to set forth the prin, iples of Marxian philosophy. It is ot intended to be a philosophical , ommentary on fundamental princi- / al principles. Liebknecht gives in he nature of the platforms: Though platform is to be clear, it annot at the same time be a com I lentary. However. it must g no explanations; 1t should t ay merely so much as is absolutely | ssential in the interest of clear F ess.' And further on he tells us hat "the agitation, the journalists :, nd the learned or the party mus. . i've the commentary" Socialism. N What It Is and What It Seeks to | accomplish, PIP 34, 35). And thus s
 point to be kept in view when so- V alist rises in righteous indignation gainst the assertion that they hold d srtain views, They point to their h latforms but it is to the speeches. ., 1e article in papers and in books U lat We must look for the true na> 0 Ire of socialism of which Hellnuir