The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-12-15

Undertake to limit and define the
kind of labor union, which could ad-
minister the fund, they would in
volve us in class legislation that
would necessitate a complete abro-
CATION of the constitution and bill
of rights. nullify the declaration OF
independence and destroy the very
foundation of this government
equal rights.
Now. there is a principle. which
the Socialists seem to have mis-
understood. Equal rights as they
understand it would prevent one
man by reason of superior powers
or application succeeding beyond an
other. For instance: John ID. Rookie
Teller, started penniless, as a clerk
in a grocery store at about 50 a
week. He has become the richest
man in the world. Every other man
had the same right and opportunity
to acquire riches. Just like Rookie
Teller. Rockefeller had no advan-
tage over his fellows, excepting.
brains, good habits, industry and
thrift. The same opportunity in
larger degree obtains today. There
is no class distinction, for instance,
between the section hand today and
the man, who has been mentioned as
possible successor to President Hara-
han of the Illinois Central. He
started as a section hand, and has
neither been knishted nor otherwise
altered in his relations to the state.
But the Socialistic idea of equal
rights is a restraining influence that
will prevent a man acquiring, as
these men acquired, and as others
may acquire in like degree. They
would stop dishonesty and immoral
lily by enacting laws. prohibiting
dishonesty and abolishing immoral
lily. Our laws do not prevent dis
honesty, and we may be mistaken
in our ideas of morality. Thus, you
may wish to buy a horse for a cer-I
tain purpose and so explain to a.
dealer, who says he has the very
horse you require. You may ex-
anime the horse and buy it for that
purpose, though the dealer knows III
possesses defects which render IL
utterly useless to you. Now, accord
ing to all right morals, the dealer is
a liar and a thief for selling you
the horse, but you have no recourseI
at law; because you bought at your
own risk.
We may be mistaken in our dis
Itinction between bastard and legiti-
mate children, and when the So
eiallst substitutes the state for the
home, bastard children may come
nearer having a fair chance in the
world with those of legitimate birth.
Indeed. had we the bar sinister upon
our escuteheon, usthinks. we would
be Socialists; but we apprehend that
under such conditions illegitimacy
would become fashionable, and gov
eminent pensions to the wise child
succeed the modern law of descent
of property.
Our second communication fiouts
the idea of Socialism having any
thing to do with religion and morals
and accuses us Of not knowing what
capital" is; because, forsooth, we
Isaid 1--WE cannot distinguish between
the capitalist who has ten cents and
the capitalist who has ten million
dollars" which indeed, we cannot;
nor are we any more able. after that
our correspondent explains:
Capital may be money, it may be
buildings, machinery or raw mate
rials; but none of them become capt.
tai except under certain conditions
When these things are used to ex-
plot labor. then only do they be-
come capital. One may have con-
siderable more than ten cents invest
ed in home, a library, or an auto,
yet none of these are capital. Capt. /
tai is anything which is used to take
his product from the laborer with
out giving full equivalent.
Socialism proposes the collective
ownership of capital for the benefit
of ALL 1t is then obvious that So
cialism will not disturb any private
property which is privately used, but
Chis hAob PiAfoAV PiOptibJ
publicly used, and absolutely neces-
sary to our existence and happiness;
such as the land, mills, mines, etc."
This is all very lovely and lucid
until we come to- enact laws that will
automatically protect the ten cents
or the ten million dollars, as the
case may be, in the hands of the
possessor as long as it remains "pri-
vate property, and confiseate it the
moment 1t crosses the dead line into
the realm of .''capital."
If the government owns the land
and controls the industrial and COM
mercial intercourse of the people, It
must necessarily own the homes in
which people live, and become a
great paternal landlord, determining
for us the amount we shall spend,
the food we shall eat, the sanitary
under which we shall
live, our educational facilities, the
people with whom we shall asso-
ciate, the neighborhood in which we
shall dwell, the church we shall at
tend, and every conceivable moral