Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1908-11-28
ROOSEVELT SCORES.
Points Out the Fatal Weakness
of SociaIistic Schemes.

I
lures Unfair, but Are confuted by
the Statements Of Other Members Of
Their Own Party.
Judging from the angry replies Of
Socialists, President Roosevelt must
have struck home in the address in
which he recently paid his respects
to socialism IN the following words:
I'VE have made this country what 1t
/ Is partly because we have measurably
succeeded IN securing Ia the past
equality Of opportunity. That is very
/ different from equality OF reward.
II believe emphatically In doing ev-
erything that can be done by law or
otherwise to keep the avenue OF occu-
patton. Of employment. OF work, Of In
1 terest, SO open that there shall be, so
/ far as it is humanity possible to achieve
| 1t, measurable equality Of opportuni-
/ equality of opportunity for each
man TO show the stuff that Is In him.
| But when 1t comes to reward let him
get what by bis energy, foresight, In
| telIigence. thrift, courage, he Is able to
| get II the opportunity opens. don't
! believe In cuddIing any one. would
no more permit the strong to Cypress
| the weak than to tell weak man or
a vicious man that he ought by rights
to have the reward due only to the
man who actually earns 1t. Very prop
erly we In this country set our faces
/ against privilege.
There can be no grosser example
of privilege than that set before US as
an ideal by certain socialistic writer's
the ideal that every man shall put into
the common fund what he can, which
would mean what he chose, and should
take out whatever he wanted. In 9th
err words, this theory Is that the man
who is vicious, foolish, a drag on the
whole community, who contributes less
than his share to the common good.
should take out what is not his, what
he has not earned, that he shall rob
his neighbor of what that neighbor
has earned
"ThIs particular sociaiistic IDEAL would
be to enthrone privilege in one of its
grossest, crudest, most dishonest, most
harmful and most unjust forms.
Equality of opportunity to render serv-
ice--yes, will do everything l can to
bring it about. Equality of reward
no, unless there is also equality of serv-
Ice. IL the service Is equal let the re-
ward be equal but let the reward de-
pend on the service. And, mankind be-
ing composed as it IS. there will be
inequality of service for long time
to come. no matter how great the
equality of opportunity may be, and
just so long as there is inequality of
service it is eminently desirable that
there should be inequality of reward"
The tenor Of the Socialist criticisms
Of this address Is shown by the follow
ing quotations from replies. most OF
which appeared in the New York Even
ing Call, Socialist organ:
"This peculiar statement of Roose-
welt makes it clear that he does not in
the least understand socialism."-Rob-
ert Hunter. millionaire Socialist
HE Is truly most ignorant concern
ing the principles of the most vital
question of eur day. If Mr. Roosevelt
wishes to abuse socialism he must
learn what socialism is."-Rose Pastor
Stokes, Wife OF Another Millionaire
Socialist.
"The presidents idea of socialism is
absurd But who could expect him to
say anything different? He would
make people believe that Socialists
were communists. AS matter of
fact, we want each man to get just
what he earns through his own efforts
and no more. If man earns S. a day
then give 1t to him. If he earns $40,
give him that. But we would assert
that one man who does inferior work
to another should not get the same
pay"-Morris Brown.
1t is unfortunate that President
Roosevelt worded his remarks SO that
they could be construed into an iden-
tification of socialism and communism
He undoubtedly is we'll aware that,
while all communists are Socialists,
few American Socialists are commu-
nists. 1t is perfectly evident that what
he was protesting against was the doe
trine that all workers should receive
the same pay without regard to the
quality of their work This doctrine
is repudiated by Morris Brown and
also by Warren Atkinson, who, in a
lengthy rejoinder TO President Roose-
welt, says:
"The answer is simple and conclu-
sive to this question, how to determine
the pay In the Industrial republic-just
as we do it now. The Socialist party
has never proposed to determine the
relative pay for different kinds of work
In any different way from the way in
which 1t Is determined now by the or
binary action of supply and demand"
| This answer is not ingenious. Mr..
Atkinson knows very well that the
Socialist party platform by no means
| fully represents the ideals Of the party.
| 1t was toned down to catch votes
! the votes of those who have something
to lose, either of property or skill, and
/ are therefore more conservative than