The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1915-08-19
SOCIALIST PARTY AND
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP


some quarters that the Socialists OF
Everett are not making an issue OF
the proposed municipal water and
power plant. And we are not sur
prised. In the minds of most per-
sons, including large percentage or
Socialists themselves, municipal ana
state ownership of public utilities is
the very essence of Socialism, the SUI
preme aim and end of Socialist effort.
AS a matter of fact, the real purpose
of Socialism is capture of the powers
of government, municipal, state ana
national. by the working-class, to the
end that they may use the legal and
police powers of the state or munich
pality in the interests of the workers.
As the workers can never attain eco
nomic freedom and social justice
whilst the capitalist class owns the
means whereby they live, victory for
the workers at the polls will naturally
be followed by the taking over of
public utilities in the name OF the
common people, to be operated in the
interests of those who do socially nee
essary labor. In this sense, and in
this sense only, the Socialist Party, as
such, is committed to public owner
ship of the things collectively used.
Municipal ownership through the votes
of wage-earners and merchants, small
capitalists and larger, Socialists and
anti-Socialists, concerns the bona fide
Socialist only as a citizen, as con-
sumner, a wage-earner, or as a taxpay-
er; not at all as a member of the So
cialist Party. Municipal ownership
and state capitalism may. indeed, be
adopted by the capitalist class as a
means of fighting Socialism. The only
"step in the right direction" from a
true Socialist point of view is when
the workers unite at the polls to vote
in their class interests, to take pos
session of utility or to enact or to
abolish a law or ordinance as class
conscious political organization, func-
tioning first, last and all the time pri-
marily in the interests of those who
have nothing but their labor-power to
sell as a means of livelihood
The purchase or installation of a
municipal water and power plant by
the City of Everett is in no sense a
Socialist or class issue. 1t will be
owned and controlled jointly by CAPT.
talists and wage-earners when bought
and put into operation. AS consum-
ers the Socialists will have the same
interest in securing a good supply of
pure water as have the capitalists
AS wage-earners they will be inter-
ested in securing union hours and con-
ditions, along with higher wages But
the anti-Socialist wage-earners want
these things also.
A SOCIALIST ISSUE
The Socialist issue in Everett will
lie in the question of who is to be
in control of the city hall after the
municipal plant is established. The
voters who are now SO confused on
what is Socialism" and what is not
even "Socialistic," will suddenly be-
come fully enlightened and vote
squarely against the Socialist candi-
dates and what they stand for, viz,
class-conscious working-class control
of the city government That is, a
large number of them will so VOTE
even though they favored municipal
ownership" of the water system And
here is the true test of what is and
what is not real Socialism, or at least
of what is and what is not a Socialist
issue.