Evening star., 1924-01-20
Americans Too Jndividualistic
To Make Socialism Possible

value which is put into it. Socialism
recognizes no such thing as intrinsic
value. The diamond and the grain of
wheat are to be appraised exclusively
by the amount of labor devoted to its
finding or production. One also must
assume that all capital is essentially
bad. Socialism makes no distinction
between the numerous and diversified
ways in which wealth is accumulated.
Moreover, one must believe that the
laboring man is day by day sinking
into worse and worse condition. A
look around America will deny this.
Limit, if you wifi, labor to those who
use their h&nds. and assumedly use
nothing else, although the most skill
full hand is iAnpotent without a brain
to direct 1t, and determine for your
selves Whe ther our old-fashioned gov
ernment is interested or not in its
workers. their families, homes,
health, welfare ana happiness What
of the many laws We have enacted
and the higher standards and benefits
that nave flowed from those laws?
These basic principles of modern
socialism ought to enable an average
man to determine whether it's theories
justify a social revolution. They
convince me that fear of spread or
dominance of socialism In America
Is groundless. Before socialism will
come to pass in our republic we will
have to have different race of men
and women from those who now dwell
beneath the flag. Socialism, to be
successful, must go back beyond the
birth OF man: 1t must start at the
conception Of humankind. 1t must
breed a race of men and women with
like hopes. like aspirations, like aims,
race devoid of personal or individ
ual ambition. To make silk purse
out of sow's ear would be much
easier than to make a social order
where all are just alike out of an
order where all are unlike.
+ 4 X *
For more than year i had official
opportunity to investigate certain
troubles between capitalists and
laborers in America, to talk with the
representatives Of each group, listen
to their theories and hear their COM
plants. j became convinced that
while the old order needed rejuvena-
tion. readjustment, new ideas and
greater brotherhood. it was funda-
mentally sound and would remain.
The brotherhood idea was cramped
by the feeling that brotherhood was
all right if it were not carried too
far Both capital and labor were
ting on in the world. Strangely
enough, / found the most helpful cap
italists to be men who had never
done a stroke of manual labor in
their lives and the most vindictive
capitalists toward unionism to be
former labor union officials who had
risen to the capitalistic class. My re-
'luctant conclusion was that while
men may bind themselves together
for the ostensible purpose of bene-
fitting their class, any one who
stands to benefit himself by deserting
his class is quite apt to do so. Men
are willing, it seems. to make massed
fights when it is better for them
selves, but are unwilling to yield up
opportunities for themselves even
though they may thereby benefit
others.
God made the individual and he is
here TO stay. The onward progress
of the human race toward brother
hood is not to be promoted by cramp
ing individual initiative, but rather
by touching individual consciences.
Copyright, 1924. by Twenty first Century
Press.1