The Alaska socialist., 1913-11-01

bill IS epock-nlarking, Ill one way, the remarkable address delivered to Congress by the President in person on the subject marks an epoch, in arother way
 Two passages the ill address deserve careful pondering over. They are.
 What will itprofit us to. be free if we are not to have the best and most access sible instrumentalities of commerce and enterprise?
 If man cannot make his assets available at pleasure, his assets of cap acity and character and resource, what satisfaction is it to him to see opportunity beckoning to him at every hand, when others have the keys of credit ill their pockets and treat them as all but their own private possession?'
 It matters little to our purpose that the President is of the erroneous econo- mic opinion that drastica1ly lowered tariff will snap the shack1es of industriar slavery, the effects of which he seeks to abolish. It matters little that, justly considering the Underwood bill as good as law, the President contemp1ates in that the source of freedom. That which renders the first passage singular is the recognition of what will it profit man to be free without the iustru mentalities to make his freedom good.
 This is Socialist thought We recall no bourgeois source in which any language like it has yet been used, or approaching to it. Abstract feeedom goes for little, or nothing, so teaches Socialism, The instrument of production, the material instrumentality, is a necessity for free dom.
 Again, it matters little to our present purpose that the President is of the er- roneous economic opinion that the need ed instrumentality for popular freedom is money. That which renders the sec ond passage singular1y remarkable are three distinct thoughts embedded in it.
 The first thought is the need of capi- tai for freedom.
 The second thought is that the need ed capital is held by people who treat the same as tleir own private possessions.
 The third thought is that such private possession is social crime.
 These are Socialist thoughts. They are singu1arly different from the regula- tion bourgeois article. Socialism em- phasizes the need of what is today "capi- tai" for freedom Socialism emphasizes the fact that the thing necessary for free dom should be the property of all, but is today the private possession of few who hold it. Finally, Socialism pro- nounces such private ownership a mod ern crime.
 Disengaged from the bourgeois origi- na11y superstition and false pretence with regard to freedom being an abstraction, the President recognizes it being q con- crete matter, possible only through con- crete means; enlancipated from the bour- geois to the bourgeois comfortable sup erstition that the private ownership of capital is a sacred thing, the president detects criminality i'll the private poss- ession; absolutely emancipated from the l tra1nmels of bourgeois false teachings to the effect that the iustrunlentality where by to enjoy freedom can be obtained by whomsoever is worthy" the President point-blank takes the opposite view, to the effect that the ownership of capital is the key to opportunity, and that the holding of the key by a few as private -..,naoc;o., s,o.,oa1. 4t,o o.eo4, of oo~-ao:4-x