Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1909-02-04

automobile banquet Mr.. Shaw plead
with the assembled capitalists to get
down on their knees and pray God to
save this country from its prosperity;
and In spite OF the Bible warning that
THE prayers OF the wicked availeth
nothing" The prosperity of which Mr.
Shaw complained folded. its tents like
the Arabs, and as silently stole away"
Now behold Mr.. Shaw expressing
alarm at the trend toward Socialism,
and regretting that the majority of
teachers OF sociology are Socilists "and
the few exceptions are anarchists" He
certainly puts Chancellor Day and E.
Benjamin Andrews in an unpleasant
position. Mr.. Shaw also says he would
be Obliged for the names OF any Chau-
tauqua speaker that is not teaching
Socialism. There is one notable ex-
ample to which Mr. Shaw's attention
is respectfully called. The Hon. VIM.
ennings Bryan Of Lincoln, Neb. who
has been so absorbed by his am
bition TO be president that he has not
as yet grasped the meaning of the
Weighed i'm the balance and found
wanting" that is written on the wall
Of capitalism, Mr.. Shaw says: The
public libraries are full Of IL, the trend
of the newspapers is toward socialism,
and, | repeat. the trend is dangerous
to this country Wherever we go out
to teach that mon must succeed
equally regardless Of aptitude we are
pointing toward the rocks of a ma
ton Mr. Shaw surely has not proven
very apt scholar when all this COM
bination Of trained minds have en-
deavored to teach him socialism, or
he certainly would not have fallen into
the grievous error of asserting that
Socialism taught that all men must
succeed equally regardless of aptitude.
Socialism does not teach that men
must succeed equally. 1t only teaches
that each man shall have an oppor-
tunity to work. and that he shall have
the full value of his product for his
own use. If he produces little he will
have, little. If he produces much he
will have much. Socialism does not
teach that there shall be two kinds of
idlers-the rich who are idle volun-
tarily and the poor who are con-
demned to enforced idleness because
they are unable TO find capitalist that
is wiling to allow them to work, even
for one-fifth of what they could pro-
duce. Because, in order 20 make
profits the capitalist must be able to
sell the liaborer's product and the la
borer, no matter how sorely he needs
products, is unable to buy more than
one-fifth of what is produced because
OF the smallness of his wage and, in
cases of unemployment, his capacity to
buy is taken away from him altogether
and he has no alternative but to beg
or starve. A nation which is building
monster battleships with which to cap
ture foreign markets while thousands
OF little children are suffering the
pangs of hunger in this land of the
free and home of the brave, is certain
ly perilously near the rocks that Mr..
Shaw fears. Those starving school
children will some of them survive
by charity, and they will be a part of
the citizenship of this nation under the
folds of the Star-spangled banner.
Will they be free? Can they be
brave. when their lives have been one
long struggle for existence: when our
national anthem is drowned by the
diapason of the children's woes? Mr..
Shaw is alarmed at the trend toward
Socialism,; either because Socialism
would give him all he produced, or
compel him to produce all he got.
However, i'm these days of the new
thought when we are being taught the
inevitable victory of mind over mat
ter. IL is gratifying to hear 1t from
so high an authority as Mr.. Shaw that
the majority of the trained minds are
Socialists and that they aer carrying
aloft the torch of enlightenment along
the road to industrial freedom. Some
day the workers OF the world will tire
Of offering up four-fifths of their pro-
duct on the altar of capitalism. Then
they will investigate socialism and go
in and possess the promis d land.
Certainly the libraries and newspapers
,ital subject on which the masses OF
are full Of socialism. 1t is the one
the people desire reliable information,
and the public speaker or newspaper
that tries to stem the tide by misrep-
resenting the principles and purposes
of socialism is doomed TO oblivion and
pathetic dust, The daily grist of hor-
rors that are published In any of the
great metropolitan dailies, murders,
rohberies. debaucheries. bread lines.
and starving children are each and all
eloquent illustrations of the writing on