The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1914-02-12
THE NEED OF SOCIALIST
TEACHERS IN OUR SCHOOLS
nv d. d. Llndstroml


the annual Okanogan County Teach
ers' Institute at Conconully october
14,-17.
Among these Is one by Prof Frank
o. Kreager, head of a department at
the state College at Pullman.
Now shall endeavor to place a few
of his remarks under the X-ray, and
see If they will stand a close scrutiny
from n Socialistlc standpoint
To begin with, he says: THE first
aim of education should be to train
the people to EARN the best possible
living" (Note the accent on earn
Very good, indeed That is one of
the fundamentals of Socialism, and
when the Socialists get in power they
will see to 1t that every one does earn
his living
"If all were earning their living
there would not be much room for re-
form"
Hit the nail on the head again, didn't
he?
"The second aim of education should
be to create a capacity for enjoyment
OF life and the third should be to train
us to serve our fellow man"
Very we'll! But we all have the in
herent capacity for the enjoyment of
life. Under the social system which
we are tolerating, that capacity will
be void, for the great majority, until
such time as they learn to think for
themselves, and take the enjoyment
they have earned, instead of allowing
the master class all the good things of
life and themselves nothing. "Serv-
ing our fellow man" is all right, too, as
long as we do not allow the masters
to make it shaving for our fellow man.
zone earns a living when he ex-
changes his useful surplus product for
the useful surplus product of others"
another Socialist axiom, and well
stated But how does that apply to
the producing class when the masters
pocket all of their surplus products,
and give them barely enough to re-
produce the power necessary to pro-
duce some more Surplus" for the boss
to pocket?
And, this being the case, the worker
has no surplus product, and having
none of course cannot exchange it for
anothers; therefore, he is not earning
his living and is of course not entitled
to live. How do you like it?
Zone could not earn a living max
ink whiskey." How about all the I'M
derpaid distillery and brewery en-
ployes? They not only earn a living,
or rather an existence, for themselves,
but out of their surplus products,
whether useful or not, have been piled
up fortunes aggregating many millions
of dollars to be spent by the master
class in riotous living.
He goes on to say that if Rockefel-
Ter is earning forty millions year he
should be considered as one of the
greatest benefactors of the human race
the world ever knew; and has the
nerve to put Rockefeller's name along
side of Lincoln in this comparison.
Why not put the name of Captain
Kidd alongside of Lincoln's in the
same way he does Rockefeller's?I
For we have been taught to think that
Captain Kidd was the greatest pirate
of his time, and surely few years
does not make a difference great
enough to make the comparison seem
any more ridiculous.
Now, considered from financial
standpoint alone, how do you suppose
the entire stealings of Capt Kidd dur
ing his entire life would compare with
the income of our modern pirate for
one year? Do you suppose that he
stole as much as forty millions in his
whole life? Not by long ways, or he
would have been a capitalist like
Rockefeller and could have gone any
where his fancy might take him with
out fear of being molested or inter
fered with.
Someone says, How about the lives
he took" Did you ever stop to think
of the lives that are snuffed out every
day in the interests of big business?l
Pick up your daily paper and you Will
find accounts of one accident after
another, and seven out of every ten of
them could have been averted by the
use OF the proper precautions for
safety. But in the greatest scramble
to cut down expenses and increase
dividends human life is not considered
and It matters not at all to the capt.
taIist IL few hundred miners or rail
readers or workers OF any kind are
killed. There are always plenty more
to take the vacant places and the mad
rush for profits goes merrily on
II we are going to place a crown OF
iaureis on Mr. Rockefeller's brow, 1t ia
only fair that We should include Car