The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-04-10
FARMING AND SOCIALISM
Editor of the Pilot:

farmer readers have expressed an IN
terest in my late communication on
the above topic, which encourages me
to send this.
A liltle over fifty years ago we re-
joiced over the abolition of slavery in
the United States Later, with the
ending of the slave traffic in Africa,
we congratulated ourselves that mo-
where on the round globe was slavery
recognized as having lawful status.
Where are we now?
number of years ago, l read one
of Herbert Sponsors books and was
much impressed with a sentence to
the effect that Socialism was 1.-THE
Coming Slavery. That the predic-
ton of the writer is true, the land
laws of the Bolsheviki go far to prove.
That Socialism is responsible for
these land laws is unquestionable, for
Bolshevism is Karl Marks Socialism
in practical operation for the first
time. That it is slavery pure and
simple, that it establishes, as a fun
damental tenet, the doctrine of prop
erty in man, is without successful de-
NAL. What difference does it make to
the slave if he is owned and held as
property of one man or the property
of a collective number-of John Smith
or the State of Wisconsin The ques-
ton that concerns him is: Is he held
and owned as property? Is he dealt
with as chattel? Is he ordered to go
and he must go, to come and he must
come?
Slavery is a cardinal tenet of social
ism, in the sense that a man is de-
prived of his personal will to act. The
individual will must be subordinated
in every case to what socialists call
the collective will; which may mean
the decision of the greater number, or,
as manifest in Bolshevist government,
less number with power to enforce
it. AS we have seen in the land laws
published in the former article, the
agricultural worker is compelled to
work any piece of land assigned to
him, to live wherever he and his fam
lily were ordered to go, to turn over
all surplus crops, above what they
consumed in living, to the soviet, to
remove to another section of country
when and where the soviet chose to
send him, to have no home he could
call his own. That was exactly the
condition of the plantation negroes of
the South up to the date of the eman-
cipation proclamation of Abraham
Lincoln.
But this inherent tendency is social
ism to enslavement extends to other
matters of deep concern to individual
liberty and manifests a reversion to
the brute condition, that ought at once
and forever to revolt every human be-
ing who has intellect and conscience
enough to possess a sense of decency.
Here is a copy Of one of the laws
adopted for the regulation of the far
mers' daughters, sisters and other fe-
male members of his family, il COM
mon with others.
This decree was passed by the So
Wet of the city of Vladimir and vicin-
ity and published in the Izyestia, the
official newspaper of the Bolshevists.
"a girl having reached her eight
zenith year is to be announced as the
property of the state. Any girl having
reached her eighteenth year and not
having married, is obliged, subject to
the most severe penalty, to register at
the Bureau of Free Love in the Com
missariat of Surveillance. Having
registered at the Bureau of Free Love,
she has the right to choose from
among men between the ages of nine
teen and fifty a co-habitant husband.
Remarks:
81 The consent of the man in said
choice is unnecessary
"2. The man on whom such a
choice falls has no right to make any
protest whatsoever against the in
frngement."
'The right to choose from a number
Of girls who have reached their eigh-
teenth year is given also to men. The
opportunity to choose husband or a
wife is to be presented once a month.
The Bureau of Free Love is Autonom-
Gus.
Men between the ages of nineteen
and fifty have the right to choose from
among the registered women, even
without the consent of the latter, in
the interest of the state Children who
are the issue of these unions are to
become THE PROPERTY OF THE
STATE"
The decree goes on to state that it
is founded on similar regulations is
sued in the soviet districts of Luga,
Kolpine and others The city of Khvo-
linsk and vicinity has adopted a SINH
lar decree Since | received my copy
of the above law in January last,
Swedish newspaper states that the
same regulations have been adopted
In, IDnf no