Why I am in favor of socialism
Part 1
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Why I Am In Favor of Socialism
SYMPOSIUM
Original Papers
EDWARD SILVIN
Sacramento, California U. S. A.
Copyright, 1913 BY EDWARD SILVIN
INDEX TO AUTHORS
Allen, Fred Hovey 31
Andrews, Eliza Frances 10
Andrews, Martin Register 12
Axon, Stockton 23
Baldwin, E.F. 11
Baxter, James Phinney 11
Beard, Daniel Carter 11
Bigelow, Poultney 9
Broome, Isaac 15-16
Burgess, Gelett 8-9
Cazalet, Edward Alexander 31
Chancellor, William Estabrook 7-8
Clare, Israel Smith 24-25
Conger-Kaneko, Josephine 31
Cooke, George Willis 36
Cutler, James Elbert 5
Fisk, Everett Olin 9
Fleming, William Hansell 22
Gates, George Augustus 7
Helms, E.J. 31
Hitchcock, Charles C. 32-34
Hume, Gibson 17-21
James, George Wharton 35
James, W.E.S. 25-27
Kalley, Ella Hartwig 29
Kinney, Abbot 30
Koeb, Otto 36
Levermore, Charles Herbert 29-30
London, Jack 5
Loveman, Robert 5-6
Noll, Aaron 34
O'Neill, John M. 25
Parsons, Eugene 16-17
Peake, Elmore Elliott 27
Pease, Charles Giffin 13
Post, Louis Freeland 6
Russell, Charles Edward 34-35
Sawyer, Roland Douglas 14
Schindler, Solomon 23
Silvin, Edward 37
Sinclair, Upton 14
Smiley, James L. 6
Strobell, George H. 28-29
Towne, Elizabeth 12
Taylor, J.P. 15
Weber, Gustavus Adolphus 27-28
Whitaker, Robert 22
White, Hervey 9-10
Whitson, John Harvey 10-11
Williams, S.B. 15
Why I Am In Favor of Socialism
=London, Jack.= (Author.)
I am in favor of Socialism because I am an individualist, and because in Socialism I see the only possible social organization that will give equal opportunity and an even chance to every individual to develop and realize what is strongest and best in him--and in her, if you please.
Because Socialism is in line with social evolution, is foreshadowed as inevitable by today's social tendencies, was foreshadowed as inevitable by the social tendencies of ten thousand years ago and ten thousand generations ago.
Because I am convinced that it is the only form of social organization that will give a square deal to the little boys and girls that are coming into the world today, tomorrow, and in the days after tomorrow's morrow.
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=Cutler, James Elbert.= (University Professor.)
I am in favor of Socialism as regards its aims and purposes, because I believe it to be in this respect in harmony with the fundamental principles of social progress.
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=Loveman, Robert.= (Poet.)
I believe Plato favored an ideal commonwealth, and I favor Plato.
Walt Whitman was inclined towards the Utopian theory--and Walt was a poet with a "yawp," that was perhaps barbarian--but it was emphatic.
I am something of a Socialist--a little of a Communist--I hope not much of an Anarchist--and I believe with Lincoln that "God must love the common people--He made so many of them."
Wm. Morris, the English poet, had Socialistic theories--and headed a movement in 1884, I believe--so we have plenty of example. I do not hate the rich--but I pity the poor--and I do not think a few men should own billions--and hoard the wealth--and that millions of human kind starving, barely exist. We are still savage.
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=Post, Louis Freeland.= (Editor, The Public, Chicago, Ill.)
I am in favor of Socialism because it aims at abolishing the exploitation of labor.
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=Smiley, James L.= (Clergyman.)
I am in favor of Socialism because--First: It stands for absolute justice. It guarantees to every one the full product of his labor. It provides that children and infirm and aged persons be cared for by the strong. It demands that all the natural resources of the earth be equitably administered for all the inhabitants.
Second: Socialism will abolish capitalism, which is a grand system of gambling.
Third: Socialism will abolish the evil fruits of capitalism, such as internecine commercial competition, the white slave traffic, preventable poverty and disease, and war itself.
Fourth: Socialism means brotherhood, industrial and commercial. It, therefore, harmonizes with the teachings of the Bible, making the Ten Commandments and the "Sermon on the Mount" perfectly practicable.
Fifth: As an excellent example of its practical value, Socialism will solve the intricate liquor problem. By public ownership this traffic will be purified from all adulterations and excessive abuse, allowing (in harmony with the Bible) the temperate use of pure beverages.
Sixth: Socialism is the economic expression of Christianity.
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=Gates, George Augustus.= (President, Fisk University.)
I don't think I am wholly in favor of Socialism, though I believe it would, even if actually in power, be better than the present reign of stark capitalism.
I am in favor of about nine-tenths of what Socialism advocates. Nearly all of the world's real troubles arise from selfishness. Some way must at last be found out of that regime. The world is keyed to mutual helpfulness; consequently there is and ought to be discord as long as we stupidly play the great game of life in the false key. There is, as a matter of fact, mutual helpfulness anyhow; we cannot live without each other, and more so as our civilization rises. The trouble is that in the present order this helpfulness is an incident, not the motive. All gospels must unite to make it the motive.
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=Chancellor, William Estabrook.= (Lecturer and Author.)
It all depends upon the definition and description of Socialism. I am heartily in favor of what I call Socialism. I was indeed mayoralty candidate in my city upon a Socialistic ticket. I do not see how any good or intelligent man can oppose my notions of Socialism. To illustrate: I believe that God made the earth for all of us and that it is a crime, vile and terrible, to allow any man or woman as landlord to collect rent from the father of a family or the mother of babies for a place upon which to rear their children--God's children, my brothers. Yet I, myself, am both a landlord and a rent tenant because of a pitiful legalistic and economic regime that does not allow me to solve my problem. I am a landlord of a trust estate and yet unable to buy a home where my business is because I cannot sell. It is a mere illustration. There are tens of thousands of others as pertinent.
To illustrate again: I am sure that it is absurd and wicked that some should rot in luxury without working, while others die of the diseases of starvation though working diligently. I am in favor of changing the statute laws so that these kings shall no more be, than chattel slavery of blacks, or the punishment of religious heresy by death. I believe that the Father in Heaven does not intend the vicious inequitableness of this passing economic system and of this social regime upon which the habit-minded look with such apish pleasure. I refuse to eat the leavened bread of the Pharisees and to sit silent amid these wrongs; but at the same time I suspect that I am rather an opportunistic reformer, a Christian Socialist, perhaps a Social Democrat, than a revolutionary all-or-none, now-this-minute Socialist, for I can be charitable to most other men who still worship the idols of the market-place. Some, however, I cannot forgive; I cannot forgive the hypocrites or the malicious.
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=Burgess, Gelett.= (Author.)
I am in favor of Socialism because I believe that co-operation, rather than competition will the sooner bring about the brotherhood of man.
Because the conditions that surround the majority of mankind are continually growing worse, and Socialism offers a radical solution for the problem of the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Because the rich are steadily growing richer, and the poor, poorer, under the present industrial system.
Because the concentration of this wealth in the hands of a few has shown the possibility of a centralized control of the industries, and has taught methods of handling big business, so that these activities may and should be in the hands of the people.
Because of the enormous saving through co-operation, both time and opportunity will be increased for the benefit of the people.
Because the use of this time may be used by the people for education, for culture, for travel and for larger mental growth.
Because this change in economic system will emancipate woman by making her man's equal and will thereby develop her mind, her self-respect, and her inventive capacity.
Because with a rational industrial system and the opportunity for leisure natural and sexual selection will work more freely amongst men and women by giving both a wider choice, a better approximation of the ideal mate.
Because this effect will result in a benefit and happiness not only to the present but to the future of the race.
Because Socialism is the only project which contemplates these benefits.
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=Bigelow, Poultney.= (Author and Barrister.)
I am in favor of Socialism because it is the teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of his predecessors, the Buddhists, and before them the people who followed the example of Rama or Brahma.
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=Fisk, Everett Olin.= (President of the Fisk Teachers' Agencies.)
While I do not count myself a Socialist in the extreme sense and shall never vote a Socialist ticket, I lean very strongly toward public ownership of public utilities and find myself in cordial sympathy with the view of some of my intimate friends who will vote for Mr. Debbs. Just how fast the public should assume control of public utilities I am not clear, but I feel quite sure that we should move in that direction and keep public ownership in mind as an ideal. Whatever embarrassments may arise, and certainly embarrassments must arise in any change of program, I feel that the disadvantages would be more than offset by the education of the public and by the cultivation of public spirit which would naturally accompany the gradual introduction of public control.
The fact that the post-office, the public schools and in many cities water supply, street lighting and transportation have been well managed by the public, promises well for extension of public control and I think we are moving along toward this perhaps as fast as can be expected, in view of our imperfect human nature.
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=White, Hervey.= (Novelist and Poet.)
Socialism seems to me the most practical plan for the individuals of a highly specialized and complicated society to share the duties, the responsibilities, and the rewards of their organization.
It is the logical development of our system of combination or "trusts" that has already supplanted competition. It will do more to put the wealth produced by intellect and labor into the possession of the earners than any program I have met with.
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=Andrews, Eliza Frances.= (Author and College Professor.)
There are so many reasons why I am a Socialist and why everybody should be one, that it would require a book to give them all. A few of them are:
First: Because I believe that those who do the work of the world should receive the full product of their labor, and not be forced, as under the capitalist system, to pay a tribute from their toil for the support of useless idlers.
Second: I believe that "the earth and the fullness thereof" was provided by nature for the benefit of all her children, and not as the "vested interest" of a few greedy monopolists.
Third: As history teaches us through the example of Jesus Christ and all who have rendered the greatest and noblest services to mankind, that, love of greed and personal gain is not an incentive, but a hindrance to noble deeds. I believe that Socialism, by removing this hindrance, will leave men free to follow the higher promptings of their nature, and through the noble incentives it offers, hasten the evolution of the race to a higher plane.
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=Whitson, John Harvey.= (Novelist.)
At present I am a Progressive. But I can see that our industrial system is breaking down. As men rise in the scale of humanity they reach a point, and it is now near, when the exploitation of the weaker by the stronger can no longer be tolerated. I think present conditions clearly show that the government (the people) should own all such natural monopolies as coal, oil, minerals and the like; and that the railways, express companies, and the big machinery of transportation should also be government conducted, like the post-office. When that has been accomplished, further steps in that line can be taken, if the people deem that best. In so far, I am in favor of Socialism, and stand ready to go farther when it seems desirable and the people are ready for it. That is, have risen to it.
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=Beard, Daniel Carter.= (Author and Artist.)
I am in favor of Socialism because I am not afraid of their ever introducing into this country the Socialism of Carl Marx, and I do believe that by their propaganda, their enthusiasm and insistency, they are forcing people to think who otherwise would drift along in the same old rut, and anything that makes the people think stands for progress, although it may not be progress along the lines advocated.
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=Baldwin, E.F.= (Editor, Star, Peoria, Ill.)
Socialism is a beautiful dream, but when we wake up, we still have to scratch for a living. Under Socialism, one man is as good as another, and generally a good deal better. Poverty is a crime. Therefore, every poor man ought to be in jail. Socialism is a panacea for all the present ills. The trouble is, nobody wants to apply it. Under the present system, it is every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. Under Socialism every man is hindmost. Every honest man now is a Socialist. The trouble is, there are no honest men. I never knew but one honest Socialist editor, and he has just committed suicide.
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=Baxter, James Phinney.= (Author and Ex-Mayor, Portland, Me.)
Socialism is subject to several definitions. There is a Christian Socialism which embodies the spirit of the second precept: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It is patient and long-suffering; wise in its efforts of helping men to advance by righteous ways to the stature of true manhood.
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=Towne, Elizabeth.= (Editor and Author.)
I am in favor of the Socialist ideal, because it aims to take care of all the people, affording equal opportunity for everybody to develop, laying no extra burdens on any one person or class of persons. I believe the Socialist ideal to be the ripened fruit which the world is to bring forth.
But I do not believe in the Socialist practice of forcing the ripening of that fruit. In other words, I do not believe the world is ready to do away with capitalism. And I do not believe in the inopportunism of Socialists. I do not believe in tearing off the husks of capitalism before human intelligence is ripe for expression on the higher plane. As long as Socialists hold aloof, and will not co-operate with capitalism they show themselves unfit to co-operate with all the people in the world in the making of an ideal government without capitalism. The Socialists missed the chance of a life-time, yes, of a hundred years, when they did not lead and nominate Theodore Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson on their own ticket, instead of putting up two men whom they know it is impossible to elect this year, thus weakening the strength of Roosevelt, who is trying to put into practice a whole lot of the Socialist program, which the Socialists accused him of stealing from them. As if the Socialists themselves did not steal every one of those ideas from somebody else! Why, Confucius ran a Socialist government five hundred years before Christ. I am opposed to the Socialist practice of hypnotising itself with the working class consciousness, in opposition to all other classes. Because of Socialist inopportunism others will have to do the practical work of putting into practice the Socialist ideal. Theodore Roosevelt has done and is doing more to bring Socialism into practice than any other one man in the world today.
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=Andrews, Martin Register.= (College Professor and Editor.)
I have listened attentively to the talks of Socialist orators, who seem to be honest, earnest men, who have a strong desire to do something for the betterment of "poor, sad humanity." With many of the reforms for which they plead I am heartily in sympathy.
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=Pease, Charles Giffin, M.D.= (Reformer and Author.)
I am in favor of Socialism, the fundamental basis of which, as I understand Socialism, is economic co-operation or the individual laboring for the good of the whole; for the reason that competition is based upon selfishness, and stimulates selfishness.
Competition or doing business for individual gain is responsible for the placing of liquor saloons on almost every other block of some of our avenues; for the opening of a still larger number of tobacco stores for the sale of the most poisonous weed grown; for the opening of gambling halls, race tracks, questionable resorts and brothels of all kinds. Doing business for personal gain is an incentive to foister upon the people intoxicating liquors, tobacco and other harmful drinks and articles by means of alluring advertisements; the adulteration of foods; the maintaining of high prices, thus depriving the poor, who are victims of the competitive system, of the necessities of life.
Under the present system, the anxiety of the employed upon the advent of "dull times," lest they may lose the needed employment; the unrest, the chicanery, the criminality and the perversion of normal appetites resulting therefrom, is opposed to the best interests of the race morally, mentally and physically.
Competition or doing business for personal gain, develops the worst there is in man. Co-operation or the individual laboring for the whole, brings out or develops the best there is in man and establishes true brotherhood. The greatest benefactors the world has ever known have labored for the uplift of the race without personal material gain as an incentive, but with the full knowledge that their labors would mean for them persecution or perhaps the Cross.
Under Socialism, the whole moral atmosphere would be changed and the individual, and consequently, the race would be enriched in the development of qualities that make for peace, joy, love and normality, as man would merge from the influence of the present conditions into the influence of the conditions under Socialism.
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=Sawyer, Roland Douglas= (Clergyman and Author, Ware, Mass.)
We of the present generation come into a world where the swamps are cleared, the forests felled, the soil ready for our seed, roads of gravel, steel, and across the trackless waters connect us; great machines of iron and steel are ready to take upon their tireless muscles the work of the world--and the human race today is rich--so rich that it can easily supply the material needs of every soul.
But still over half the race are in want, just as though we were poor.
The only thing needed is a scientific organization of industry, and Socialism is a scheme for such scientific organization. Therefore, I, as being intelligent to the present-day conditions, favor Socialism.
Of course, those who are selfishly receiving personal gains out of the present system, and those who live in the ideas of the dead, will howl for "things as they are," but more and more we must firmly (though kindly) show them the door--they don't belong with us of this day.
I might also add that it is necessary for me to advocate Socialism to square myself with my profession; I am a minister of the Gospel; as such I advocate before men that there is a loving Father in Heaven; that Jesus was the divine, ideal man; that human beings have souls that will not die with the body. I could not advocate these things without blushing if I did not at the same time condemn the existing social order--for the existing social order kills the souls in men, the ideals of Jesus cannot live in it, and should it continue we could not believe in a loving Father who rules things. For me to preach the gospel of Jesus without at the same time demanding social revolution, would be for me to confess that I was either a mental prostitute or a moral pervert, and I hope I am neither.
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=Sinclair, Upton.= (Author.)
I am in favor of Socialism because it is impossible for me to be happy while living under a system which deprives others of the fruits of their labor.
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=Taylor, J.P.= (Manufacturer, Winston-Salem, N.C.)