The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1912-02-01
SOCIALISM TO Be
EVOLUTION
Millard Explains Social
Laws
Cooperation of the Home Possible In
Community Life.

Socialism is not come to destroy
but to fulfill civilization" declared
Walter J. Willard of Cincinnati, O.,
during his lecture in the Opera House
last Thursday night. Mr.. Willard was
the second speaker in the Socialist
Lyceum Course, and for more than
two hours, held his audience spell
bound while he explained and inter
preted the social laws that have gov
erned the evolution of society from
punctuated with enthusiastic applause,
and Mr. Willard left an impression
equalled by few men who have ever
visited Skowhegan.
Enumerating some of the social
scourges from which the original Am
erican Indians were free Mr.. Willard
ton of those natives with that of the
workingmen today. He asserted that
the real test of civilization was found
/ in the answer to the question How
secure is the future?" As compared
with that of the savage, the working
mans was a thousand times more in
secure. Very few men could eXsist
unaided if out of work six months.
Great discoveries by Darwin and
Spencer had taught humanity to first
observed the facts in nature, and from
them derive the natural law, declared
Mr.. Willard. With an understanding
of natural law, man had since been
able to control the forces of nature
and develop civilization. Only in re
cent years had the same methods of
investigation been applied to humanity
but already the foundation had been
laid for the science Of Sociology
Mr.. Willard said that we had only
skinned the surface of social law,
but thanks to the genius of Karl Marx
we were at last able to really under
stand history. While this has hither-
too been taught from the military and
political viewpoint, scholars generally
We're coming to accept the material
istic Interpretation. This explains all
movements Of population as caused
primarily by the struggle for subsis-
tence. The bread-and- butter question
always dominates the political. The
form of the social structure is deter
mined by the methodSl of production
and exchange in VOC and
Tracing the develops &C fnt of civliza-
ton, Mr. Willard to]Do how saYagry
and barbarism had n way to the
slave system, that to Inc feudel sys-
tenn, which in turn sue hmbed to the
capitalist system. He cited the reyo-
luton in China as a transition from
the feudel state Mr.. Willard cited
the rules for worldly success that are
generally held up to the rising genera
ton, and then declared that the young
men of today have no ideals. Those of
fifty years ago had proven false in the
hands of the men who attained them.
He told the story of one millionaire
who admitted a haunting fear of yio-
lence from some victim of the system
that was producing his wealth, and
condemned the Rooseveltian doctrines
about malefactors of great wealth I'M
sparingly.
Mr.. Willard said that in the home
all productions were for use. This
accounted for the striking difference
in quality when compared with COM
modities produced for sale. Socialism
sought to apply to the life of the com
munity, the same principles of CO
operation that worked out so success
fully in the home. The Men and Reli-
gion Forward Movement was sci down
as an impossible attempt to disregard
the lessons Of history and all reforms
work from the bottom up, not from
the top down. He predicted that good
would come of it, but not in the way
its promoters expected
The Socialists program of today as
explained by Mr. Willard is not to
overthrow existing institutions, but by
intelligent political action to substi-
tute for private ownership where
necessary, ownership by the munich
pality, state or nation. The rights of
private property would be regarded as
the priceless heritage of civilization,
but gradually the people would come
to see that some things were no more
properly subject to private ownership
than the atmosphere or the sea
Things used by the individual should
belong to that individual. Things
used by the family should belong to
the family, but no man should be al
lowed to own that which he could not
use except as a device for exploiting
his fellow men.
Mr.. Willard laid down the principle
that no organism in nature so acts
as to ALLEVIATE its food supply, and that
no organization can disregard the
source of its funds. So long as big
business financed the Republicans and
Democratic parties he said, the men
elected by those parties would have