The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1908-11-06

that among able bodied and mind
ed adults service alone is entitled t.
reward, and therefore that the in
stitution Of profit should be abolish
ed It puts its finger squarely up
on profit seeking as the root OF all
economic evil-as the underlying
cause of the manifold ills which
afflict the industrial word, and it
calls upon all reasonable and just
men to recognize and oppose the
cause rather than the Consequence
the seat of the trouble and not mere
~ the symptom, holding that all
efforts directed against mere indivi-
duals or corporations will in the
end prove futile, for the simple rea-
son that we cannot abolish an effect
without abolishing its cause.
Thus the common charge that
socialism is the enemy of property
is seen to be baseless. 1t is the in
stitution of profit, not the Institute
on of property, which it opposes.
1t is not opposed to property in any
form. 1t is simply opposed to the
individual proprietorship of that
particular kind of property known
as capital, because it is upon such
proprietorship that the institution
of profit rests.
So much for diagnosis. Now as
to remedy. There is no use in pro-
posing the abolition of an institute
on unless it is possible to substitute
some alternative institution. We
cannot say Of any political practice
either that it is intrinsically bad or
intrinsically good. All we can say
is that it is better or worse than
some alternative. Hence if social
ism would abolish the institution Of
profit it must be prepared to pro-
pose an alternative institution which
is superior. And this it is amply
able to do.
The simple. reasonable and we'll
known remedy of socialism is to
abolish private, individualistic owns
ership of capital, and substitute for
it public, collective ownership. If
capital is to continue to exist among
us some person or aggregate of per-
sons must, either directly or in
exercise that control Of it
which constitutes ownership. In
the absence of a reign of universal
philanthropy private ownership is
impossible without profit. There
fore, unless we are prepared to en-
dorse system wherein one class of
the population habitually lives up
on the labor of another we must re-
sort to public ownership.
Under public ownership industry
is carried on for use and not for
profit, just as the post office is to-
lay. All reward is for service, all
commodities are sold at cost, aud
when the socialistic system has at
.ained complete maturity private
will be extinct. All re-
ward is for service, all commodities
ire sold at cost, and when the So
system has attained com-
olete maturity private capital will
)e extinct. All able bodied adults
will share in the work of the world
brain or Drawn to repay
society the service society does them. |
Such a remedy obviously con-
orms to the requirements of the
1t is a cure which strik- |
IS at the cause of the disease, and
t is the only cure thus far proposed
which does. In the great struggle
which is now on between those who
would preserve and those who would |
destroy the institution of profit, be-
,ween those who would reward men
or ownership and those who would
lot, the socialists are explicitly com
nltted. They recognize that the
working or doing class is ind ;uno,,