The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-06

present social order by obstin- ately standing pat on consti- tutional law. It is no satisfactory answer to the social radical to say that our Institutions are grounded in court decisions. Men are no longer willing to settle SO cial and economic issues on such grounds The test now being urg- ed as that of social expediency and social welfare. Private pro- perty, free enterprise, and com petition are the three great fun damentaIs on which our present order rests. From various quar- terS these three great fundamen- tals are being assailed. Let us ex- anime the source and nature of the attacks. There are many kinds of social radicalism, some of which are fantastic, some of which are. exceedingly dangerous and menacing, and some of which are the reasoned proposals of intelligent men. Virtually all social radicals agree that the bas- 1c causes of poverty are to be found in the laws and customs which govern the distribution of wealth-that poverty exists be- cause riches exist-that the many are poor beca use the few are ODulent. The defender of the existing social order insists that the basic causes of poverty lie deeper, that the fundamental problem is inadequate produc- tion, that the resources of the world are limited in comparison with the population of the world He holds that wise social poIi- cy in the future, aimed at the abolition of poverty, would seek both to restrict the mum bers of the population and to prevent further breeding of those eIe- ments of the population which are condemned by birth to infer iority. He also lays heavy empha- sis on efficiency in production, and defends free enterprise, prf- Nate property and competition. primarily on the ground that they contribute more to effcien- cy in production than any sys- tenn proposed by the social radi- calls could do. He will seek. in deed, to remove Inequalities in the distribution of wealth, but he will not go so far in this as to sacrifice efficiency i. production.
 The Socialist attacks all three of these fundamentals ton, free enterprise and prfyate property-eNoept that the Social. Ist is generally willing that pri- Eate property in consumabIe goods should continue to exist: but the Socialist is unwilling that the land or the instrumentalities of production, machinery. rail- roads, factories, raw materials. ships, and the like, should be prf- FateIy owned. He is unwilling that private individuals should draw income from any source but their labor.
 Karl Marx is the greatest mama among the writers and leaders or the Socialists. He was a man cf massive intellect, and had q passionate love for humanity. A German Jew, long in exile from ms native country living in Eng land and France, his vision look ed beyond the limits of a single country, and he cared nothing TOT patriotism. He taught that international rivalries s.:i1 wars are folly. that the real struggle IS not between the Iaborers of England and the laborers of France. Or the laborers of Ger many and the IabOrers of France. put rather between the IabOrprs or all peoples and their masters. the capitalist class. He believed that society is being increasingly split up into two hostile camps. the Iaborers and the capitaists. or in his own language. the pro Ietarians' and the "bourgeofs." The bourgeois or capitalists moreover, were co,s+a,,tI,, growing fewer. ConnDefJ+to1 which be regarded as a ruthless and intolerable thing. meant the disappearance of the small capi- talist, and of the economic mid- de class.
 Going with this, Ee thought that the condition of the masses of the people, the laborers was becoming Increasingly miserable. Receiting low wages, and produ- c1ng large quantities of goods, they were unable to consume what they produced, and periodic gluts appeared in the market, leading to period: crises of over- production. These crises, he pre- dicted, would come closer and closer tOge her, and wou q be more and more severe. Meanwhile. the number of capitalists, would grow progressively smaller, the middle class would disappear. and the bitterness of the masses toward the capitalists would grow ever mere intense. The 'class struggle" as he called it. would grow more and more sav- age
 I've escape from periods of cri- ses, he explains, by Q widening of the market through bringing in the remoter parts of the world, such as China and India But this is increasingly difficult with each successive crises. and at last there comes a great and final cri- sis in the midst of which the pro- letarians rise and take over the control of industry. When Marx was writing in the sos and eos he recognized that the time was not ripe for this great social rev olution. Before it could be ac- complished, the process of con- centration of industry would have to be carried V-ry far. The monopolist he looked upon as a great fOrerunner of socialism. The great capitalist who kills off and absorbs his competitors is a necessary step in Marks analy- r11nnnnn1u ho 1oo1Sed 11n-