The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1912-10-11

the latter are in position to decide what
shall be done, by virtue of their owner
ship they keep their mills idle until the
surplus has been gradually and pain
fully worked off. and now they are Wiling
to again start up the mills, for they can
now make profit selling new goods. rms
constitutes "A cycle of industry. a period
of activity at fever-heat In which the ma
chine owners get immensely rich and the
working class just manages to exist. for
competition between themselves for jobs
bears the labor market always keep
ing wages just about the cost of a cheap
living. followed by Il period of depression
in which the owners live still in great
luxury, and the working class suffer want,
disease and death for lack of the very
things its own labor has created. This
cycle is repeated over and over indeh-
nitey.
The immense wealth thus accruing to
the owning class puts them in a position
to control the government. for wealth Is
power" and we have the spectacle OF i, a
class government which of course is
strenuously denied by that class which en-
joys the cinch, and the enormous power
of law making is appropriated to the own
ing class without so much as by your
leave" and the unthinking masses, ac-
customed to regard all things as right
which exist. do not recognize that herein
is the secret of one-sded laws made by
our democratic" government.
Now the criticism of the socialist to the
present arrangement by which the world
makes and distributes its necessities is
that 1t was founded on false premises
The laws relating to the ownership OF
land and machinery were made in Yer!
natural laws was exceedingly limited. and
when mistakes made vastly less dif1er-
ence than they do now. when society rs
so complex. and where We have steam and
electricity. so greatly increasing the pow
err of their individual owners over those
who have no such ownership.
Land titles were founded on brute force
going to the victorious king in war ana
parcelled out among his coutiers as the
price of their allegiance TO him Black
stone one of the greatest lawyers Is au-
natural basis fo- individual titles but any
people can at any time decide for them :
selves in what form they shall hold their
land. and we say tfat the intenectuai
gradually unfolds as time goes on. anc
we now see that land titles must rest on
elaboration. equal justice and the public
good making it now proper question OF
reform" as We call all such changes in
the general plan of managing the affairs
of society. We can now see that land Is
an inheritance of all the race. and that II
is disastrous to maintain a policy of land
holding which gives one man right
which in any way interiors with the right
of equal access to natures bounties for
all future corners. This establishes the
principle of the common ownership of the
land: and little closer reasoning reveals
the same cinch which the machine owner
has so long enjoyed. exploding the theory
that he is the owner" of the machine.
No man has ever been great enough
to invent a machine. All machines are
known plus a small addition to them by
the so-calld inventor This is well known
and admitted by the inventors themselves.
Therefore. just as the children of men
inherit the earth. so do they inherit the
principles discovered In the past and in
VOWED in all machines. and they now
claim joint ownership with the inventor
in all machines, thus making the great
principle of common ownership of land
and machinery the foundation stone of the
socialist theory of society,
We challenge criticism of this line of
reasoning And is it not worthy of re-
mark that all legislation which has really
done anything toward mitigating the evils
of the present system Of private owner
exception been in the direction of more
public ownership? The evil of private
ownership is corrected by the good of
Given common ownership of the means
by which We all must live will put all men
to work and distribute equitably the pro-
machines Is so great that. coupling idle
men with idle machines. the result will
mean ample for all. and the historic
struggle for existence will disappear for
ever, placing the race upon the higher
plane of brotherhood, and the joy of liv-
ing will be the common appanage of man
w. &. Il. RANDOLPH, Omak.
tMr. Randolph sent the above commune
cation in to this office with an invitation
for the editor to answer. 1t is difficult to
discover anything in the article requiring
an answer. 1t merely pot pourri of
words. that really convey little meaning.
but will probably be considered master
piece by those of the cult He simply sets
forth his ideas as to what Socialism stands
for. and there is nothing in his position to
affirm or deny on the part of one who re-
jects the gospel of socialism 1t is common
stock in trade of the socialist propogandist
who holds Que bright promises of getting
something for nothing in order to attract
recruits from the ranks of the discomfort
ed. 1t is a declaration of the demand of
the followers of the ism from Mr.. Ran
dolph's point of view. But Mr.. Randolph
is lame in not explaining how lands and
sources of production are to be distributed
and handled after confiscation is carried
out and title rests in collective ownership.
1t Is the natural Prescriptions that some
individual. Or body of individuals must
have the power to decide who shall have
this piece of land or that and who must
have the management and direction of the
sources of production. Otherwise there
would exist chaotic state of anarchy
where might would make right the weak
er be crowded to the wall with less show
for existence than under the present or
der of things. People would gain no ad-
vantage from such change because or
binary men would have direction of af-
fairs the same as they have today. There
Is no evidence that public policy would be
directed any more satisfactorily under so
ciaiism than at present. for no man can
claim that the socialist as a citizen is
any more honest. competent fair and lust
than his neighbor Indeed taken as a
whole the socialists one meets nowadays
does not average up in moral worth
square dealing. or intelligence with the
ordinary run of mortals There may he
exceptions to the rule. but there is no