The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-12-26
SHALL THE NATION
OWN THE TRUSTS

Gaylord Wiltshire, editor of a New:
York city Socialistic monthly, will ba
of interest to those of our readers
who honestly ask, and are never an
! swered, the very important question:
suppose Socialism should come,
| what it will be when it does Gomez"
Mr.. Wells.
Question the common Marxist, about
! these difficulties (Mr. Wells is refer
| ring to the constructive part of our
modern political program) and he will
rehpse magnificently into the doc
trme of laissez-faire. 'That will be
all right he will tell you.
"How?"
I'VE will take over the trusts and
run them.'
1t is part of the inconvenience at
tending all powerful new movements
of the human mind that the disciple
bolts with the teacher, overstates him,
underlines him, and it is no more than
a tribute to the potency Of Marx that
he should have paralyzed the critical
faculty in a number Of very able men.
To them Marx is a final form Of
truth. They talk with bated breath
of "classic Socialism, to which no
man may add one jot or one little,
to which they are as uncritically
pledged as extreme Bible Christians
are bound to the letter of the "Word:"
The peculiar evil of the Marxist
teaching is this: that it carries the
conception of a necessary economic
development to a pitch Of fatalism;
it declares, with all the solemnity Of
popular "science," that Socialism must
prevail.
| Such a fotalism is morally bad for
the adherent; it releases him from
the inspiring sense Of uncertain VIC
tory, it leads him to believe that the
stars in their courses will do his job
for him. The common Marxist is apt
to be sterile Of effort therefore and
intolerant - preaching predestination
and salvation without works.
BY a circuitous route, indeed, the
Marxist reaches moral position curl
ously analogous to that Of the disciple
Of Herbert Spencer. Since all i'm
provement will arrive by leaving
things alone, the worse things get the
better; for so much the nearer one
class-war and the triumph of the pro-
letariat.
This certainty Of victory in the ma
ture>. of things makes the Marxists
difficult in politics, pedantic sticklers
for the liter Of the teaching; obstinate
opponents Of what they call 'Pallia-
tlves"- Of any installment system of
reform. They wait until they can
make the whole journey in one stride,
and would, in the. meanwhile, have
no one set forth upon the way.
In America the Marxist fatalism has
found a sort of supreme simplifica ton
in the gospel Of Gaylord Wiltshire. The
trusts, one learns, are to consolidate
all the industry in the country, own
all the property. Then when they own
everything, the nation will take them
over, Let the nation own the trusts
The nation in the form of public
reading capitolistic newspapers, Injured
to capitalistic methods, represented
and ruled by capital-controlled poll
ticians, will suddenly take over the
trusts and begin a new system....
It would be quite charmingly easy
if it were only in the remotest degree
credible.
Mr. Wiltshire.
can hardly see the logic of Mr.
Wells admitting that the program O.
Let the nation own the trusts!'
would be "charmingly easy if onl!
credible. Uusually one says tina
which seems easy Of performance il
credible, but Mr.. Wells finds just tn
reverse, the very simplicity is ba
; to the possibility.
However, Mr.. Wells loses the mali
point Of my argument in favor Of tn
program to LET the nation own tn
trusts It is not as he says tina
. the step must be taken because tn,
trusts will finally come into possession
of everything, although this nigh
seem to some people sufficient reason
/ but because the time is at hand whe1
I the capitalists can no longer give EN-
! ployment to the workers.
For years I have been predicting
that the present state Of depression
which now hangs over not only thi
L nation but all the capitalistic earth
would appear, and that it would con
tinue to grow worse and worse unit
: not onl ythe working class, but prac
. tically the whole of the race woul
must be forthcoming and that the oh
| | WINS AcIucOy was oOCldllSl1l.
J I cannot see how Mr.. Wells ca
, go so far as to practically admit tina
the trusts are eventually to own ev
erything and yet not think that the
the cry will be LET the nation ow
) the trusts myself, as said, do no
\ prophesy that the trusts will eve
eventually own everything; I say tn
tendency is toward this elimination
4 but that long previous to any com
4 plete monopoly by the trusts an I'm
! employed problem will come upon u
that will demand solution with a voic
= so compelling that the solution mus
be forthcoming.
\ | I ask Mr.. Wells what he thinks
going to be the result Of the continu
ance of the present period of depres
sion. Are we going to quietly starve
If not, what are we going to do abou
it? He says that and the Marxist
are against "palliatives.' I deny thi
say that there is nothing than ca
be done to palliate the present syster
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