The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-05-13
tey CHARLES EDWARD RUssELL)


The editor of The Tribune Magazine
has asked me to write for his readers
an answer to this question:
What do you think the war may do
for the permanent advancement of So
cialsm in the United States
That, kind sir. depends upon what
you mean by Socialism. If you mean
jus, the garden variety OF anarchism
that lately. under the assumed name Of
Socialism. has been ramming around
some parts of this country making
noise like Il ropperhcad, tho war Will
do nothing whatever to advance that.
There isn't any advance III it. Hou
can't advance a madmans dream nor
movement whose conception OF prog
ress is to run diligently about u circle.
But what. then, shall we mean by So
cialism? What do mean by it,
mean democracy dcmoc-
racy. ! mean additions to the deerer
of democracy we have arrived a; now.
! mean marching forward instead of
sitting down forever in III" road hat
other generations have broken for MS.
i mean democracy in politics and gov
eminent, and democracy in industry
What Democracy Would Mean.
Democracy in politics would mean
for us now woman suffrage. the fran
chise for adults on absolutely equal
terms. women made eligible to all Of
fees now open to men. 1t would mean
tie ending of a half democracy. with
half of the population governed, but
having no voice in the government that
governs them
Next it would mean no more ohsta-
cles between the will of the people and
its execution; direct power and direct
responsibility placed squarcly upon the
Who'll" population, No more Nesticial
fcudalism sticking around like those
muscles with which in the jungle days
our ancestors used to flap their ears.
no more of the idea, inherited from the
same period, that government is a gift
from the skies handed out To n select
and superior few. 1t would mean the
initiative. the referendum aud the re-
th'' ~ N'hi'i I'i'sth I'''l'IitI EbNtill~
ment perfected and operative.
This is the political phase OF it
which. of course, everywhere arrives
first. and must Bat as to industry it
Is the same thing. Industry can be de
moCrati2cd as surely as government
trial outocracy is no more stable in
the long run than was political autoc-
racy. The throne il not more fcudal
and insane than the industrial orrani-
cation under which u few gather tho
fruits of industry and many men secure
but rinds and pits-~and bad at that,
War to Aid Socialism.
SO then. coming back to your original
question. if this is the kind OF Social
ism You mean the real thing and no
anarchism. the war will do everything
for it's permanent advancement. Tic
war will make ii the definite policy of
civilization, ana has~alrcady gone far
to achieve that result.
And this kind is tn" only kind that
Will ever max" a hit in the United
States, and even this will probably
never go far with the tag on it.. The
word Socialism" has been so thor
oughly discrcditcd by the recent
achievements In disloyalty of some of
it's professcd advocates that for many
years it will be enough to hoodoo any
thing il may be glued to. But the idea
and not the label. the better condition
IN" substance of the thing we hope
for that can never be defeated nor de
laNed. Democracy-nothing can stop
1t now; ii is already upon us. The
whole wide world Is UNDERGOING trc-
mendous changes. the most momcntous
We have ever heard or dreamed Of, and
all Of them make for d"mocracy-po-
litcaI and industrial,
The Two High Lights.
Observe now. The two great. over
spring high lights in the story OF de
mocracy are the invention of printing.
which began to dcmoCratize learning
aud the fall of the Bnstil". which began
to put the kibosh on the king idea
| Sine" tGc$" lights began to shine. FIRST
on" and then the other. the human
mind has gone forward faster than in