The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-07
THE BROMIDE SOCIALISM.

l. FblucOl lalL duIHiTdDlN llAlHtaAliCd MS
reputation as Il bromide when, in speech at
Jackson, Michigan, be gravely declared socialism
to be the great problem that confronts the Amer
lean people, the issue, that is to come and
that must be successfully met This problem,
moreover, was "how TO restrain and regulate the
use of private property for the common good
without abandoning the boon of individual eff
fort"
We trust that the people Of jackson, Michigan,
were edited at this deliverance by President
of the United States, who had travelled all the
way from Washington TO make it and other OBJ
servations, among Which the statement that
the Republican party is the party that does
things"
Probably in the enthusiasm attendant upon
gazing upon a real, live President the people of
jackson, Mich. found themselves strangely
cited over vaguely familiar utterancos. And
when they had returned to their homes, not a
few of them no doubt, finally gave over long
Election to slap the thigh in congratulation over
having recalled that these portents of the crisis
were exactly what they had predicted themselves.
What they probably did not RECALL was, that
their own prophecies were but echoes of what
may be heard Gd nnuSedm on any street corner,
from every redcravatted ward politician, and
embryonic philosopher and sociologist who
pauses on Saturday nights to warm the cookies
of his heart and settle the fate of the Nation
before standing before the Recording Angel who
scrutinizes his pay envelope. The hard part of
it is, that what the citizen of jackson, Mich
just naturally knows "out of his own head and
what the valuable economist of the corner saloon
achieves by flash of inspiration, President Taft
probably worked out with the creakings and pain
attendant upon setting massive intellect in
motion Beside mental offspring of this char
scter the mouse that came of the labor of the
mountain was IA mastodon of travail.
And what is this evil problem Of which John
and Cousin Joe. and even Sarah Ann, are all so
prone to prateg Where does it Gve and who
has seen ii True, it is "in the air, the
talk, that is,-buG who recognize tho SUR
stances True we all know ''socialists", but he
is wise socialist who can explain himself to
himself. In Milwaukee, a socialist" was elected
Mayor, and the first thing he did was to reas-
sure capital and assert his respect for property
There are some mlllionaires of the cult, but they
cling tenaciouslv to their millions. And there
arc some whisksred adherents of the doctrine who
can only finds words to declare that capital is
curse, and prove their assertion by investing
their own in beer! Someone, in describing a
familiar type once said that his friend was zone
of those people who say that Next to the Bible,
Shakespeare is the greatest book ever written -
never having read either" And it is much the
same case with socialism---the thing that would
cure us all-if we only knew what it was!
1t would be interesting, however, if man of
the brain of Mr.. Taft should, for once in a way,
forget that all argument invented TO prove
the greatness and Immortality of the party, and
devote his energies TO an analysis Of pure So
cialsm, and the things that, as matter Of fact,
are working to precipitate solid theory out of u
political nebua. If no should demonstrate how
the course of liberty has been up from anarchy to
autocracy; back from autocracy to democracy;
! back from democracy to autocracv; and thence
again to anarchy, socialism, as you will. If,
having thus shown the inherent dangers of any
recognition of property rights, he should es-
tablish just what relation is borne it by the legis-
lation for class, by legislation tending to make
popular representation more remote and less
true, by the insidious merging" Of democratic
powers in arbitrary hands. If, then, he should
prescribe remedy and consecrate himself to
achieving it. instead of smearing the question with
a platitnde and then devoting himself to making
Liza trouble more acute. President Taft would