East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-03-23
WHAT SOCIALISTS WANT.

was asked by woman the other \.
day to define or explain the philoso- /
ply of socialism. This is not an easy I
task
Socialism is an elaborate system of 1
human life. 1t has a literature of
tens of thousands Of volumes. There
are men who have spent years of
their lives on single phases of social &
list philosophy and still have not
reached its depths. The same thing
is largely true. of every great system
of thought. None of them can be un-
derstood in a moment There is no
royal road to knowledge
Yet there are certain fundamental
principles of every philosophy and sci
ence that can be explained so that
anyone can understand them. The
same thing is true of socialism. Its
basic principles can be stated in plain
simple words First / will state some
plain facts. Indeed, nearly all there
is to socialism as to science in general
is a system of arrangement of certain
facts.
Men are working today with Won
derfully productive machines. The
use of a modern locomotive trans
ports a thousand times as much each
hour as the driver of an OK team could
move in a month. The combine
thresher in a Umatilla county wheat
field turns out carloads of grain where
the man with the fail threshed BUSH
els This is the story that meets us
in almost every industry In rela-
| ton to these wonderful machines.
| the members Of society are divided in
| to two classes. those who own and
| those who do not own the machines.
| The class that own the machines do
not need to work. They may be like
| the owners of the great Marshall
| Field estate wards of a court. They
may be insane infants, in Jail. This
does not interfere with their owner
ship. The class of owners does not
need to do any work. Yet its income
| flows in. This is because of the exist
ence of the other class-the class that
does not own anything This nom
| owning class cannot live unless it can
use the property of the owners. 1t
, cannot even set foot on the earth un-
less it uses the land that belongs to
the owning class. This nen-owning
class cannot live unless it produces
wealth In order to produce wealth
it must use the land and machine Of
the owner Here is where the ever
occurring conflict begins. (Strlkes,
lockouts and blood shed will continue
until this point is settled.) For the
opportunity to use the property of
the possessing class long enough each
day to produce a subsistence for IT.
self the propertyless class agrees to
keep on producing wealth. with these
wonderful productive machines all
day. The portion which the proper
tyless producing class creates for it.
self and is allowed to keep is called
wages and all the remainder flows in
to the pockets of the owning class as
rent. interest and profits.
In return for this the owning class
does nothing but hang on to their
titles to the property, their posses
sion makes it possible for them to lay
tribute upon every man. woman anC
child wh,, must work for a living. The
socialists point out that since M
function is performed by these own
ers. and since it requires neither
brains nor ability of any kind to holC
titles. therefore it would be easy foi
\ the workers collectively to hold thes'
titles The workers could just "a
well appoint the state as their agen
to hold the titles as the capitalists car
appoint banks, corporations and trus
companies for that purpose. Sine
it is only the private, legal title tina
prevents the propertyless work.ni
e class from gaining access to the won
: derful productive machines, and us
ing them to produce wealth for tn
producers, when once the title wa
transferred to the working class gov
ernment, then all could use the tool
: of production and retain the product
The present title is a law-made one
1t can be unmade by changing tn
laws. Therefore, the workers are ask
ed to make use of these political pow
ers. The working class constitute
. almost three -fourths of the votin
=