The Washington herald., 1912-09-29
National Ownership of Trusts Inevitable, Be-
cause Benefits of Organization and Corpora
tion Would Accrue to All, Is Argument of
the SociaLsts-Scheme Is Practicable

II impracticable" for the people to con-
troll the means of life?
Exploits the Many.
We Socialists charge the capitalist sys-
tenn with being inefficient and tmprac-
ticable. We say that 1t is system
which exploints the many for the benefit
of the few. We declare that under cap
italism the majority of the people are
compelled to live from hand to mouth,
and that millions are forced to starve SO
that a few may enjoy all the benefits of
civilization.
Can it be truthfully said that our pres
ent system is practicable from the stand
point of the masses? OF course, 1t is
highly successful from the viewpoint of
the Rockefellers, Morgans. and Wander
bits But is It a success when you take
into consideration .the conditions of the
toilers?
Can it be said that capitalism is prac-
ticable when the avers ge wage is less
than $500 a year? When the cost of liv-
ing has increased twice as much as have
wages? When 100000 children below
the age of fourteen years are forced to
work in mills and factories to assist in
supporting their humble homes? When
hundreds of thousands OF women are
forced to sell body and soul? When hum
dreds of thousands beg for work and are
unable to get it? When misery, poverty,
and disease curse the land?
Is capitalism practicable when II kills
and mains every year in the factories
and on the railroads of the United
States more people than were killed and
manned in any one of the four years Of
the civil war?
System Not Blamed.
OF course, the apologists of capitalism
will say that the fault is with the indi-
v:dual, not with the system. But will
these apologists explain the fact that
there are to-day numberless sober, thrift
ty, and able-bodied men who exc out a
miserable existence either through lack
CT work or through small pay for hard
work, while on the other hand there are
idle millionaires who dissipate their i'll
gotten wealth in luxury undreamed of
by the potentates OF old. Does human
nature" require a system of this kind?
We cannot understand that viewpoint
that clings to the belief that workers
will perform their labor only when they
are robbed of the greater part OF their
product. Neither can we understand why
the apologists of capitalism do not carry
out the logical conclusion OF their ar
guments. II the people cannot be trusted
with the control Of their industrial con-
control of their political conditions? Why
not advocate an absolute monarchy?
If the people can make all the laws that
govern all things, why would il be i'm
for them to decide the most
questionable bread and but
ter question?
The truth of the matter Is that many
workers are getting tired of being mere
wage slaves toiling for their masters.
They propose a system wherein only pro-
ducers shall enjoy the fruits of civiliza-
ton. Millionaires and tramps will nat
urally find such a system ''impracti-
cable
But the worker who desires culture and
in addition to the satisfac-
ticn of all material wants, will find So
cialism the only economic system worthy
of his support. To-day he is merely a
drudge. To him capitalism is imprac-
ticable.