Grand Forks herald., 1917-03-08

ture and distribution. have been lend
ing their aid to a movement whose
ultimate and avowed object is to de-
ownership Of what they have regard
ed as their own property and the con-
troll Of what they have supposed to be
their own affairs.
The very essence Of Socialist doc
trine is that all the agencies of pro-
duction and distribution shall be own
ed and operated by the state. "for the
common good" as most of the Social
list writers are careful to specify. The
Socialist doctrine is that there shall be
no such thing as capital or profit, that
all productive property shall be the
property Of the state, and that all citi-
zens shall l.be the employees OF the state
to receive from the state, in exchange
for their labor, such compensation as
the state decides is sufficient to meet
their needs. and no more.
The state ownership Of railroads is
a familiar Socialist policy. In this
state we are passing through an agi-
tation for the state ownership of all
marketing facilities. as represented in
the state elevator plans; for the state
ownership of manufactures. as repre-
sented in the packing house agitation.
The plans thus far proposed in this
state do not include the state owner
ship and operation of farms, but that
is a necessary part of the Socialist
program, advocated by eminent Soc
ialists everywhere. and inseparable in
principle from the rest of the Socialist
program.
And if the acquiescence Of our peo-
pie in the plans already proposed
should continue how long will it be
before state ownership and operation
of farms is added to the program?
There is close afrtliation between the
active Socialists Of North Dakota and
the I. W. w. That fact is notorious.
Whenever members of the I. W. w
have undertaken to take the farmers
Of district by tho throat and conf
pei them to pay exorbitant wages for
inefficient work on pain Of having
their crops ruined and their other pro-
perty destroyed. it is men of the same
group with those who have sought to
impose Socialism on the state who
have urged them on, who have aided
and abetted them in every possible
way, and who have assisted in their
defense when they have been held to
or, f1~ "a
midation and other breaches of the
law.
The I. W. W. has already become a
powerful influence in nosthern Min
nesota. The work OF organizing these
men as members of the Non-Partisan
league is to be prosecuted with vigor.
And does any man who knows the
character and history of the I. w. w.
and the spirit which governs it sup
pose for moment that these men will
long look with composure on the pos
session by some, people of fertile. farms
and the enjoyment of the proceeds
therefrom while they, themselves,
have nothing? .....+
Let the partial Socialist program
which has been urged once be got into
good working order and the state will
be swamped with foaters and drifters
from everywhere who have enlisted
under the 1. W. W. banner and have
been. drafted into the Non-Partisan
league, and these men will demand
that the program be made complete
by the inclusion Of the farms in the
states property, with every farmer a
states hired man, with no more inter-
est in the property Of which he sup
posed himself to be the owner than
has the malcontent who comes to de-
and sho cf.i