Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1908-08-27
WHAT is SOCIALISM?
,..4sm Based on Common Ownership
Of Means Of Production.

Of Means of Production.
socialism is q theory of a system Of
nan society based on the common
ar.narsbiD of the means of production
"a the carving on Of the work of
.-,5rctfon by all for the benefit of all.
r. other words. Socialism means that
%o railways, the shipping, the mines,
%o fartories and all such things as
80 necessary for the production of
mo npcessaries and comforts of life
sbouId be public property, just as our
nrbIic roads, our public parks and our
orbic libraries are public property to-
5or 81 that all these things should be
rsod BY the whole people to produce
ho goods that the whole Of the people
require.
Socialists say that this is no utopian
dream but the necessary natural out
comp of the development of society. It
rspd TO be supposed that anything like
tSa collective carrying on of any enter
nrse was impossible because it was
thought that the personal supervision
and control of the owner were absO-
htelv necessary to the success of any
ucb enterprise. But we see today
that the greatest undertakings are
those which are owned by joint stock
companies, in which the personal SUI
pvision of the proprietors is quite
impossible and in which the whole
business is managed and carried on by
paid officials who might just as well
be paid by the community to carry on
The enterprise in the interest of the
general body Of the people as be paid
BY q few wealthy men to carry it on
for their profit.
Today goods are not produced to sat
sfy human needs. They are simply
produced to provide profit for the class
which owns the means of production.
1t is only for the sake of this profit
that the property owning class owns
these means Of production. AS a con-
sequence We have shoddy and adulter-
ated goods produced; also, as this prof
it Is simply the difference between the
value Of the work which the working
people do and the amount they receive
10 wages, the actual producers never
receive the equivalent of what they
produce and~therefore are never able
10 buy it back again. 1t happens,
therefore that as the machinery Of pro
ductiOn increases and workmen are
able to turn out more goods they are
lFOWn out Of work and they. with
nelr wives and children, are In want
and misery, not because there is any
scarcity of the things they need, but
because there are more of them than
lOSe who have produced them can
buy.
Under the present system, therefore.
Tue very Increase Of wealth is too Of
en curse to the wealth producers,
SIMPLY because those who produce
nave no ownership in the means of
Production and no control over the
things produced.
Under Socialism, as the means of
pOuuctlon would belong to the whole
people, the whole people would have
tOulrOI OF the things produced. Every
increase Of wealth then would benefit
VIC whole community. Under the pres
cut system increased wealth means in
S S1 luxury for the many. In a
sv'@IlSt community increased produc-
WI would mean more leisure, more
m .aI'0' more means of enjoying life,
s ~Y,e opportunity for recreation for
voss 'ue discoveries of science, the in
H. .-1onS OF genius and their applica,
,o ,u 70 Industry man has acquired such
,a, el over nature that he can now
AM ruuce wealth of all kinds as plenti-
,a 9 Us water. There is no sound
av,s. why poverty and want should,
onyW Where on this earth. All that
h. 1seuea Is to establish a more eoufta-
3lroa Ie'nod Of distributing the wealth
Tho G :. produced il such profusion.
na y Wnat Socialism proposes to do.
socio, SoFk Of production is organized.
dletrn '-eu 1t is necessary to socialize
Losa luu1on as wen-Harry Quelch in
@'uuon Justice.