The Alaska citizen., 1911-09-25

| alist system clear to every one ] We see that the purely indiyiduai- l ist theory of private ownership cf | "prOperty' which our competitive
 wage system has made the foundation
 of society - has resulted in practi. Cally abOlishing the possibility of
 private ownership for the great ma | jOrity of the people
 One-tenth of our population al. ready owns more than foul.tifth of the wealth The Centralization of the control of property is in.
 creasing with rapdity that threat
 ems the integrity Of the nation The average Of wages. the certainty Of employment. the social privileges
 and independence of the wage earn
 ing and agricultural population. when | compared with the increase of wealth and social production. are steadily
 and rapidly decreasing.
 And the very worst of the social
 temptations is that wealth has be
 come the greatest. enc might say | the only. social power. All human
 worth is estimated in terms of wealth in dollars and cents Things cannot go on like this in. | definitely. White men will not al
 ways stand it. We are by our pres. ent circumstances. and their conse- quences creating a race of white people" in our midst compared with
 which the vandals Cf the fourth cen. tury were humane nation. Sowing the Seeds of Revolution. Within short time, with present | tendencies unchecked. we shall have two nations in this country. both of native growth. One will be very large in number, semi.civilized, half | starved and degenerated through
 misery; the other will be small in
 number. over-fed, overCiviliZed and
 degenerated through luxury. What will be the outcome? i Some day there will be a volcanic
 eruption. A fearful retribution will
 be enacted on the capitalist class as
 a class. and the innocent will sut | fer with the guilty.
 Such a revolution would throw | humanity back into standardization
 and cause even q temporary retro gresSiOn of civilization
 Various remedies have been pro posed Single tax. more silver dol |
 remedies have been offered. But since
 none of them does away with the
 deadly effects of competition. and with the effect of the machine on the workman. | must dismiss them as in sufficient. This is particularly the case with the single tax. which
 would simply for time sharpen competition and thus increase the misery of the working class.
 The other day we listened to d fervid plea for the single tax deliv- cred on this floor by the gentleman from New York (Mr George) He paid particular attention to the in troduCtion of this system in Van. Couver, British Columbia, and paint ed i'll glowing COlors the blessings that had followed it. And now comes the distressing news that Vancouver is in the midst of q general strike. the first of it's kind in that city, in volving every organized workman there, Evidently the single tax is not q substitute for bread and but ter UaughterD
 The Socialist View of Freedom. But this is what the Socialists say:
 The machinery and all the progress in implements of production We can not and do not want to destroy. Civ ilizaliOn does not want to go back to the Middle Ages or be reduced to barbariSm
 And as long as these implements of productions m2"hinCry, raw ma teials, railroads anC tele Graphs-re- main private property. only com plIatively few can be tEe sole own CTS and masters thereof. As long as such is the case these few will naturally use this private ownership for their private advantage.
 The highest industrial order which competitive individualism has given Us. and can give us. is that Of capi talisI and wage earner.
 A capitalist and wage-earner order of society inevitably ends in the economic rule of comparatively few absolute masters over a numerous socially subject class.
 The wage system was q step ill the evolution of freedom, but only step. Without trade-unionism and labor associations the wage system would produce social state lower than that Ol ltuudI!Sil.
 There can be no social freedom nor complete justice until there are no more hirelings in the world; until all become both the employers and the employed of society.
 This social freedom, this complete justice. can be accomplished only by the collective ownership and demo cratic management of the social means of production and distribution
 realize that this can not be brought about by single strOke-by one-day's revolution. But l know that all legislation in order to be really progressive and wholesome must move in that direction.
 Legislation that does not tend to an increased measure Cf control on the part of society as a whole is not in line with the trend of eco homie evolution and can not last.
 Legislation that interferes with the natural evolution of industry means the taking of backward steps and can not succeed.
 Legislation that divides nations into armed camps. that creates use less navies, that puts up Chinese walls between peoples eager to trade with one another. is reactionary and can not endure.
 The measure now under discussion is of small immediate concern 10 the working class. In itself it means no material change in the conditions of the wOrkingman or wOrkingwo-