The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-05-07
SPARGO AGAINST THEORY OF
 SOCIALISM.

SOllALJSM.
 Perhaps there is no man living that IS bett repared to discuss communism or socialism al le effect it's application would have on the Wor Ian John spargo profound scholar, de ,asoner and philosopher, Spargo has been o ho has always observed the times and the forc lat are at work under the eyes of the llvln e was a Socialist leader, recognized througho le world as one of the abest of the lot, uni m years or so ago. But he also was a praetic an. and he early learned the lesson Of the W nd of Russia He declares that experience town the folly of the very theory of socialist l a recent article in the North American ew MT. spargo says:
 The wide extension of customer own ership, through the sale of the stocks of these public service corporations to their customers, and of employee owner shin. through the sale of stock by many industrial concerns to their employees, indicate the lines upon which we are developing type of industrial organi- zation that iss destined to socialize our industrial life without destroying our incentives to progress, or submitting to the crushing burdens of such bureau cratic government as the Socialist pro- gram necessarily involves. %sf'g
 
 rather than government ownership, lies the great hope of America. No greater calamity could possibly occur than the success of the propaganda hay- ing for it's aims the government owner ship and control of industry. The sub stitution of government ownership and control for the existing method in any of our great industries, but particularly those manufacturing industries which al ptria rest that progress in invention, indus trial organization and eheapened pro- duction by highly paid labor which is the great outstanding fact in American life and perhaps our chief contribution to civilization.
 $ The vigorous and growing op- position of organized labor in this eoun- try to all schemes of government owner ship in industry is one of the most hopeful and encouraging facts in Ameri- can political life.
 Similarly, the Marxian theory of the irresistible concentration of wealth in the hands of constantly diminishing number pointing inevitably to the rapid attainment of a condition characterized by a small possessing class on the one hand and an enormous propertyless class on the other, finds support in the actual conditions of life. The countries in which industrialism is least developed come much nearer to that state of af- fairs than any of the highly devel- oped industrial countries. Farthest from it are those nations in which industrial ism has attained the highest develop ment our own country being the fore most of these. We are farther removed from the condition forecast by Marx than any at any time in the history of the nation. Never before was there such a wide and general diffusion of
 Instead of becoming constantly poor and more oppressed, the wage-earners of America steadily growing more prosperous and free from oppression The principal reason for this condition of affairs is the enormous growth of me- chanical power, far exceeding anything hitherto known to mankind.
 Whether considered as a philosophy of social progress, as a politico-economic ideal or a practical program for the advancement of the well-being of man. kind, Socialism is diseredted and obso- lete The real explanation is that the philosophy of the movement and program by means of which it would attain its goal are in direct contra diction to the basic and controlling forces of life itself. Socialism is not progressive but reactonary Its in- fuence is not calculated to assist the onward march of mankind, but rather to obstruct its progress.
 Fundamental to the whole program and goal of the Socialist movement is the theory that the growth of industry results inevitably in the ever increasing misery and degradation of the workers Against that theory may be set the simple fact that precisely the opposite is true; that where industry has de- veloped most the standard of living is highest and the prosperity of the work CTS has attained the highest level. - There is no other country in the world in which the wage earners live as we'll as those of America.