Part 3

I am in favor of Socialism because I believe that Socialism in operation means the emancipation of the human race. It is idle to talk about political liberty while the vast majority of the people are without industrial liberty. The man who owns a thousand jobs, owns a thousand lives. Such a statement may sound harsh and brutal to the man whose cradle has been rocked beneath the starry banner of young Columbia, and he may say to me, "I am not a slave for I can quit the owner of the job," but if he quits the owner of the job and he belongs to the disinherited class, the wage earning class, then necessity demands that he shall seek another owner of jobs, and he has merely changed masters and he is still a slave.

For men to be free, they must own their jobs, and to own the jobs the people must own collectively, the natural resources of the earth, and its machinery of production and distribution.

I am in favor of Socialism because collective ownership of the earth and its machines of production and distribution will open wide the gates of equal opportunity to every man, woman and child who live upon the face of the earth. Socialism means that the profit system shall be destroyed and that upon its shattered ruins shall be built a real republic, beneath whose sheltering dome, there can live no master and no slave.

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=James, W.E.S., M.A., B.D.= (Clergyman, Ayr, Ont., Canada.)

Socialism is the scientific analysis of the present state of society and the theory of social development founded thereon. A Socialist is one whose study of this scientific analysis has convinced him that society is progressing towards a co-operative commonwealth. My study extends over fifteen years, and I clearly see the gradual concentration of capital--the gradual consolidation of labor interests and the life and death struggle between them. As no question is ever settled until it is settled right, this can have only one result--the capturing of the wealth of the nations by the producers of wealth and the utilizing of it, not for the few, but for the whole people.

With the passing of the small privately owned shop through the coming of the large manufactury, socially operated but privately owned, way was prepared for the larger, nation-wide manufactury, socially operated and socially owned. It must come.

As right has behind it all the power of omnipotence and so must prevail the present system, which makes the many toil in poverty while the few live on the earnings in idleness and luxury, must make way for a system which will provide a more equitable reward of labor.

As competition is based on man's selfishness and so is un-Christian, co-operation, based on man's brotherhood, the essence of Christianity, must supersede it.

The capitalistic system must consider profits first--business must pay--and men second. The last hundred years has traced the gradual rise of man and the next twenty-five will see him freeing himself from this system of wage slavery and evolving another which will dethrone the dollar and will enthrone the rights of man.

When the ballot was given to the masses and free education to their children, the inevitable result was the rise of these masses to assert their freedom and their right to all the product of their labor--possible only in a co-operative commonwealth.

Every great religious awakening of the past has resulted from the preaching of some great neglected truth especially needed in that age. The next great religious awakening will come from preaching the one sadly neglected truth of this age--economic justice and brotherhood. It will be greater, more fundamental, more stupendous in its effects than any reformation or revolution of the past. It is inevitable.

This coming emancipation of man--dethronement of competition and dollar rule--the new moral, social and religious awakening--these give my life its greatest joy, its highest hope, and its greatest inspiration to service. I am in favor of Socialism.

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=Peake, Elmore Elliott.= (Author.)

The word "Socialism" (aside from its partisan use) has so many connotations that one can hardly say he is either for it or against it without being misconstrued. With Socialism's cardinal tenet, the better distribution and the better production of wealth, I am heartily in sympathy, as I suppose everybody is. People disagree as to the means by which this may be obtained. Public ownership of wealth-producing factors is evidently coming more and more into favor, as is evidenced by the municipal ownership of electric, gas and water plants. This principle is bound to be extended.

But it seems to me that Socialism stands with Prohibition to this extent: Long before either of them has made sufficient converts to put their party in power, their principles will have been incorporated by other parties which do not confine themselves to these specific contentions.

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=Weber, Gustavus Adolphus.= (Economist.)

The ideal of Socialism, as I understand it, is a condition of society in which each individual will render his share of service in the production and distribution of wealth, and in which each will receive his proportionate share for consumption. I do not dispute the desirability of such a condition. I take issue with the Socialists in their contention that this condition can be brought about, or that a material advance toward such a condition can be accomplished, by legislation.

Society must advance by gradual evolution, as it has done since its beginning, and I believe that this ideal condition is still many generations, perhaps centuries, distant. The only way to strive for its realization is for each generation to do its part in promoting a spirit of temperance, co-operation, fairness and intellectuality. Society will then gradually realize the waste, unfairness and barbarism of industrial competition, of inheritance and of unequal distribution and consumption. While man is thus slowly becoming civilized, he will naturally devise from time to time, such laws and such forms of government as will fit each stage of his development.

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=Strobell, George H.=

I work and vote for Socialism. Every age has its special problems, its special tyranny to combat, its own liberty and independence to preserve, to hand down to its descendants. The machine has destroyed hand labor and association in labor is inevitable. The machine, too large and complex to be owned by individuals, has made necessary combinations of owners. Combinations of owners destroyed competition, and, through resultant economy and increase of production and profit, became rich and powerful corporations. These corporations control the means of life of over nine-tenths of the people. The owners no longer are the administrators of their property. They hire the necessary business abilities to run the business machine, but they insistently demand higher dividends and profits. These demands cause the virtual slavery of the workers, and millions work today long hours at a speed and productive capacity never before known in the world, and get so little for it that they are hungry all the time, live in squalor and dress poorly. More and better machinery being constantly invented, turns loose on the labor market a host of unemployed to compete with their fellow workers for work. We are not the freeman our fathers were.

Fortunes so vast as to stagger the imagination for a few; dire, ever-increasing poverty for the masses is now and will be increasingly the result of this development unless--

Unless we look at it in the sane way, as a development toward a new order, where the people will, in their collective capacity, own and operate and democratically manage all industry. That will be Socialism. There is no other way of escape in sight. Socialism is not, however, inevitably the outcome. There must be conscious action by the people to turn this evolution away from its present tendency. To continue as we are is to invite the destruction of our civilization. Therefore I work and vote for Socialism. It is a step forward in the progress of the race and a promise of the fulfillment of the prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven."

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=Kalley, Ella Hartwig.= (Lecturer.)

I have long felt the need of a more humane form of government, a system of justice regulating international commercial relations, insuring peace and education for the older as well as the younger persons.

Our country should be a republic, industrially as well as politically, and liberate the wage slave by the abolition of the capitalist.

As a writer, I shall continue to defend the interests of the masses instead of the classes, and as a Temperance Suffragette Socialist lecturer, I shall endeavor to inspire my audiences above the misty horizon of all other political parties to the star line of true reform, which is "the hoe of promise" and basis of a nation's greatness.

I am not alone in the thought that a temperance plank added to the Socialist Platform would cause the greatest majority to leave other parties, as Socialism would be more attractive than ever, to the very finest and best representatives of society everywhere, while justice would flower and bloom and the Dove of Peace perch upon our banners. It would be a lame platform for any political party to overlook the crying need of reform on all lines and to enforce the boasted pure food law, and at the same time to tolerate and uphold distilleries, saloons and breweries, is to herald the weakness and sandy foundation of the parties, old or new. As comrades and co-workers in behalf the downtrodden, let loyal men and women unite and lead in the vanguard of Christian political victory.

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=Levermore, Charles Herbert.= (Educator and Author.)

I am in favor of Socialism because I believe in the common ownership of land and water and of instruments of production and distribution, and because I believe that the highest ideals of social and moral perfection would lead us all to labor for the welfare of the community rather than of any individual.

But I am not convinced that any party now called Socialist, or any group of avowedly Socialist leaders has as yet shown a safe and practicable plan for the realization of those ideals.

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=Kinney, Abbot.= (Author, Venice, Cal.)

We are all Socialists. Man is a social animal. It is consequently impossible that any government of man should be anything but a Socialism.

The people have lost sight of the fact that all property in a State belongs to the State. The exercise by every State of the right of eminent domain is an illustration of this. Modern governments customarily pay the private user or holder of property, when the property is taken for public use. This is always the rule when property is taken by corporations, or persons under a delegation to them of the right of eminent domain. It is only properly so delegated for public utilities in private hands.

Public payment for property so taken is a matter of convention and convenience. It is deemed fair that property taken from one member of the society for the benefit of all, should be paid for by all. Or, if such property is taken by a common carrier, for instance, that such common carrier should pay for it. In case of public stress, however, as in the blowing up of a row of houses to stop the course of a fire, or in the seizure of food or quarters for the use of military in national defense, or in the clearing away of houses or property for defensive purposes, payment may or may not be made as the conditions indicate.

More than this, every human life in a society belongs to the State. Thus the State may draft its citizens to fight fire, suppress disorder, or take part in the military defense of the society or State. The State also imprisons and even executes its members who attack the general welfare.

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=Cazalet, Edward Alexander.= (President of the Anglo-Russian Literary Society, Imperial Institute, London.)

The ideals of Socialism might be realized by the precepts of Christianity, "love your neighbor as yourself." Difficult social questions which cannot be solved by the head are sometimes settled by the heart, for it appeals to the conscience, diminishing selfishness and making all classes friends. Christian Socialism, by encouraging mutual concessions, might perhaps attain better results than agitation and violence.

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=Allen, Fred Hovey.= (Clergyman and Author.)

I believe in a Socialism which levels upward, which makes a man what he was not, only a higher, nobler, richer being. I believe that next to being God, the greatest thing is to be a man. The more Godlike he becomes, the more man will reflect the true and only permanent Socialism.

I am in favor of such Socialism as will attach the chain of brotherhood to the lowest, if that lowest is capable of rising into true manhood, because truth, honesty, love and kindness mean the Kingdom of Heaven begun on earth, and equal rights to all the children of God.

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=Helms, E.J.= (Clergyman.)

I am in favor of Socialism insofar as it is the practical application of Christianity to our economic and industrial life.

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=Conger-Kaneko, Josephine.= (Editor, The Progressive Women.)

I am in favor of Socialism because it seems to be the next step in social evolution, carrying the human race toward a more perfect civilization.

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=Hitchcock, Charles C.= (Merchant and Author.)

We are fast coming to realize that co-operation in the use of our economic resources is the only form of society worthy of civilized people.

A co-operative commonwealth demands that the able-bodied individual shall not be allowed to consume more wealth as measured in labor power, than he creates. Is not this so evidently reasonable that the system should command the approval of every fair mind? It doubtless would do so were we not born into and environed by the capitalist order, thereby being naturally prejudiced against an innovation so radically different as is Socialism.

Perhaps no more comprehensive definition of Socialism can be given than that by Walter Thomas Mills, which is:

"First. The collective ownership of the means of producing the means of life."

"Second. The democratic management by the workers of the collectively owned means of producing the means of life."

"Third. Equal opportunities for all men and women to the use and benefits of these collectively owned and democratically managed means of producing the means of life."

Under the present order of society the means of producing the means of life are privately owned and controlled; the owners thereby forming a privileged class and are enabled to dictate the terms on which the means of life--land and the machinery of production--can be used.

As a result of this private ownership labor receives but a portion of the product, the larger part of wealth produced being either wasted in the strife of competition or retained by the capitalist in the form of interest, rent and profit.

The wealth we command merely through the ownership of stocks and bonds--so-called income producing capital--is wealth received which we do nothing to produce; hence this wealth must, of necessity, be produced by others who are deprived of a portion of their product. This wealth thus appropriated is wealth derived from profit in the employment of labor (surplus value). A thorough study of economics shows clearly that interest, rent, and profit result in exploitation of labor--the robbery of labor. It is this profit system which is strangling our civilization. Poverty and the greater portion of crime can be traced directly to this exploitive system.

The aim of the Socialist movement is the dethronement of capital and the capitalistic class by merging all humanity into one class, a producing class.

The exploited majority, the poverty stricken, the submerged, as now under capitalism, will under a Socialistic Republic come into their inheritance--equality of opportunity to the resources of wealth and production--and be enabled to retain the wealth they produce.

The capitalist class, in any fair view of the situation, while being obliged to surrender the privileges now retained through the private ownership of "the means of producing the means of life," will under a Social Republic receive indirect benefit which we claim will out-weigh any advantage they may now seem to possess.

Human nature does not stand in the way of the realization of a co-operative commonwealth. It is natural that mankind not only seek but demand that to which they are in equity entitled. Under capitalism the majority are exploited out of a good share of their product. As the producer awakens to an understanding of the present situation, it is this normal and justifiable self-interest--selfishness--which will prove to be a strong, if not the leading, factor in bringing about Socialism.

The unseemly antagonism and strifes so manifest today under capitalism are largely traceable directly to our conflicting economic interests occasioned by the private ownership of the means of life.

A study of social evolution leads clearly in the direction of Socialism. But it is when we carefully consider the economic situation that we become aware of the fallacy of the capitalist system and realize that the wealth producing majority will in time inevitably demand, as a matter of justice, the co-operative commonwealth; that is, will insist that the wealth producer receive the wealth he produces--that the capitalist, who as capitalist receives usury thereby commanding, without labor, wealth produced by others, must cease to be a parasite on labor.

This changed order, this revolution, can be brought about only through socialization of the means of production and of distribution.

Not very long ago the advocate of Socialism was the voice "crying in the wilderness." Today he bears "good tidings of great joy" to a rapidly assembling multitude.

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=Noll, Aaron.= (Clergyman.)

I have been a member of the Socialist Party since the year 1900. I have, also, for twenty-five years, been a Christian minister, serving pastorates, in regular connection with an orthodox denomination--the Reformed Church in the United States. I am increasingly persuaded of the righteousness of the Socialist Movement. To me it seems that Socialism will make possible, in a practical way, the social ideals of the founder of the Christian Religion. The Church, at any period of its history, may, or it may not, truthfully, stand for the practical application of those ideals. But the Socialist Movement, at all times, the world over, stands for social and industrial justice. Jesus implanted in the consciousness of man the worth of the individual life. Socialism will make possible the true development of the individual unto a complete life. Socialism will throw around every individual a wall of protection against the rapacity of the strong, greedy, selfish individual, and it will put into the hands of every one the means of life whereby he may rise to the full stature of his being, there being none to hinder or oppress him. The concern of each will be the concern of all. But it will be a concern founded on justice, love and peace. Socialism, being scientifically correct, holds out to all men a vision of future good that inspires a hope that makes life seem worth while.

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=Russell, Charles Edward.= (Journalist and Author.)

I am in favor of Socialism because Socialism would put an end to the monstrous system of injustice by which men toil to create wealth and then are deprived of the wealth that they create. All wealth is created by labor and should belong to the men and women whose labor creates it.

Socialism would abolish poverty, put an end to child labor, make education the universal possession, abolish prostitution and make the earth fit for the inhabitation of its children. It would obliterate the slum, the breeder of nine-tenths of the evils that now afflict society. It would mean industrial as well as political democracy. I believe in democracy. Therefore, I believe in Socialism, which is perfected and applied democracy.

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=James, George Wharton.= (Explorer, Ethnologist and Author.)

As I now stand I can scarcely be said either to favor or oppose Socialism. The term must first be clearly defined. I believe in fellowship, in municipal ownership of all public or semi-public utilities; the establishment of free municipal markets for vegetables, etc.; the purchase by the city authorities of fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat, coal, etc., when dealers seek to force up the prices, and their disposal at cost to users. I would take back from all corporations, or else compel them to pay to the people an annual rent for the same, all water rights, power rights, etc., that they have filed upon and held by the right of might; I would make all great coal mining, oil mining and other reapers of crops for which they did not sow, pay a certain percentage of their returns into the public treasury; I would compel the abolition of all slums, even to the extent of compelling the municipalities to provide decent shelter for the poor at reasonable rates; I would parole all well-behaved prisoners (as a rule) at the end of a year and give them a chance to make good; I in every way would seek to educate the people as a whole to the rights, responsibilities and privileges of government, and then give them, what is theirs inherently, a full power to determine how and by whom they shall be governed.

These, hastily and crudely expressed, are some of my ideas on this important question.

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=Koeb, Otto, B.S.= (Stanford University, Cal.)

I believe in universal world-peace between all nations. Since the Socialists are the only political party honestly indorsing world-peace, I sympathize with them.

I am in favor of an universal eight-hour working day, six days per week; abolition of child labor; creation of old age pensions for disabled working men. A certain minimum wage rate, which makes it possible for every normally developed laborer to support a family. Up to the above mentioned points I am in favor of Socialism.

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=Cooke, George Willis.= (Author and Lecturer.)

I am in favor of Socialism because I believe in equal opportunities for all children born into the world, and that each should be able to use all his natural gifts according to his ability.

I believe in Socialism because I detest all forms of monopoly and exclusiveness, not being able to see why the minority should possess property and the majority should be deprived of its advantages. If it is good for any, it is good for all.

I am a Socialist because it is quite apparent that the great fundamental sources of the necessities of life, on which all alike are dependent, are social and public in their nature, and should be open to all. They should belong to the nation, accessible on the same terms to all who need them, without giving monopolistic advantage to any.

I am a Socialist because I cannot understand why one man should be subject to another as slave, serf or wage-earner. No man is good enough, said Lincoln, to have the control of another man's life.

I am a Socialist because I believe in the equality of men and women, that the domination of women by men has been vastly injurious to the race, and that the ballot will give women a better opportunity to live a noble and healthy life as woman, wife and mother.