Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-12-08

|sition," adding that its establishment
will be the greatest disaster which the
world has ever known" Anything
more glorious than the faith o. the ST.
cialist or more terrible than .tene pessl-
mistie fear of the great philosopher 1t
would be difficult to imagine.
There are many veyr thoughttul ana
earnest men and women, belonging to
neither of these classes whose fears
keep them aloof from the Socialist
movement, though thew recognize the
Justice of it's Indictment of present So
ciety and the spiritual exaltation OF it's
ideal of the revivified world. They fear
that in it's practical application the
golden ideal will be transmitted to o
dull, leaden reality. They fear above
all that for the sake of the realization
Of an abstract equality a new bondage
will! be created; that letters will be
laid upon exceptional individuals to
prevent them from rising above the
common level. The dull level OF life,
bringing the strongest to the level OF
the weakest, is what they most fear.
1t was De Tocqueville who said that
| the supreme test of democracy would
be it's power to give unlimited scope 70
genius and exceptional individual en-
dowments of intellect and character.
\ AS the complete expression of democ-
racy, Socialims must meet this test
successfully or be judged a failure.
| Equality that is attained by binding
| the swift and strong to the slow and
weak is not life but death, not liberty
but servitude.
! It is unfortunate that Socialism Is
commonly conceived of as the antithe-
sis of individualism that it's aim and
programme are supposed to be directed
toward a leveling down process, to
ward auniformity of development pos
] sible only through the repression O.
exceptional talent and. enterprise. 1t
cannot be too strongly emphasized
/ that modern Socialism does not aim
at, nor hope for, equality and uniform
| ity. Its ideal is not great level plain
of comfort, but a free, unhampered
social life expressing every variation
of culture and genius; not a world 81
mediocre equality but of glorious in
equality such as only true equality OF
opportunity can ever make possible.
The only equality aimed at by the So
| cialist is equality of right, equality OF
opportunity, out of which will develop
a diversity of genius and attainment
undreamed of as yet.
To state the matter more plainly, let
us take concrete illustration: Here
are two babies, just born into the
world, and the Spirit of Socialism
broods over them with wistful tender
ness, claiming each tiny Seeding of
! humanity as it's own. The mysteriou;
and inscrutable little eyes give no hin!
of the future upon which they look; NJ
hint of the germinal genius embodied in
each tender brain. The Spirit of So
cialism does not seek to discover some
process by which both can be force'f
to develop alike, so that each shall be
a perfect copy of the other. 1t does
not long for the power to kill the var
liant characteristics fashioned by Ma
ture in the mothers wombs out of the
stored experience of the centuries. On
the contrary, it seeks to make possible
the complete unfolding of each life; @
MAKE it possible for each human bud to
attain full and perfect blossoming. In
a word, it seeks for each equal oppor
tunities to grow and develop. In life's
|
every human Seeding. From the mo-
rnent of birth it would give equal op
pertunities to all. Aye, and before
4 birth, in the long night of preparation
in the mothers womb, in the develop
| ment of the fathers loins and the
\ mothers breasts, it would begin each
kehild's heritage of equal opportunity.
Given such equality as this there
| Il L. -
would become dull plain of medioc
rity. There would be no danger OF
famine of genius. Not every one
would be a poet any more than al
present, but no mute, inglorious Mil
tons" would perish in silent misery, nc
splendid poem die unborn in the darl
! prisons of poverty and despair. Not
avry ore would be a painter of in
spring picture any more than at pres
ant, but no dream of beauty would g
'nexrressed because the torturou
pain of poverty drove the dreamer *
EN- slienle and forgetfulnss.
Could we but see it and reckon il
the most terrible cost of our present
ystem is it's waste of precious genius
Poems as great as any ever writer.
pictures as glorious as any ever paint
ed dramas as stirring as any ever pro
duced, songs as inpsiring as any ever
sung, discoveries and inventions as
wonderful and important as any ever
made, have been lost to the world be-
cause it failed to provide genius with
the conditions necessary for its growth
1t is today, under the rule of capital
ism, that life is a dull level. Here and
there, immense distances apart, ar'-
towering mountain peaks of intellect
genius and character. but the rest is
a dreary plain of mediocrity. If the
future promised nothing better, one
would pray with Browning
Make no more giants, God
But elevate the race at once!
1t is today that for the great mass
of humanity anything like Individual
| ity is impossible Where is the indi-
viduality of the wage-workers, for ex--
/ IL Ia