Why I am opposed to socialism Part 6

These systems of the mult.i.tude amount to mob rule, and will never evolve the highest type of men--the intellectual and moral samurai of whom H.C. Wells has written, the rulers by nature, training and fitness, the men who, in Nietzsche's phrase, are to surpa.s.s men.

In practical matters Socialism may be said to be already operative, and largely operative for good. It is correcting many ancient evils and bringing a certain degree of order and balance into the world.

That is its chief value--an industrial and economic one. It is a means and not an end. For in the last a.n.a.lysis of human things it will be undone by that iron fiat which decrees that every man must be an end in himself and unto himself.

=Gaines, Clement Carrington.= (President Eastman College.)

I am opposed to Socialism because I believe that Socialism is an impracticable form of governmental administration, and therefore must, if it should ever come to power, fail as a system of government. In support of this view I suggest the following considerations:

First: A free democratic government, a government by the people in any form, must necessarily be controlled by parties.

Second: Parties are held together by the interests of the organization. These interests in the end are opposed to the interests of the people in that any party must support itself by what its organizers and promoters can get out of the people, which is another way of saying that every party is held together by the cohesion of public plunder, the private interests of its organizers. That policy is always most popular with the party in power which promises most profit to its leaders. The leaders are controlled by the policy which seems to serve their interests best, and not by the principles of righteousness or altruism.

Third: Hence in the administration of Government by a party the success and policy of the party must dominate its action rather than the interests of the people whom the party would govern, because this success is the thing most necessary to the continuance of the party in power. The effort to succeed leads to corruption notwithstanding the apparent purity of its principles or promises of its platform.

Conclusion: Since the three principles enunciated seem to be the fundamental law of party government, and since the principles of Socialism are in contravention of this fundamental law, it is believed that Socialism cannot permanently succeed as a method of party government. It is further believed that the principles of Socialism are in contravention of the natural law that no creature may advance in any direction except by the law of compet.i.tion of all its vital forces, principles, and powers. Mr. Darwin calls this "the law of natural selection and survival of the fittest," and says conclusively that this natural law governs and directs the development and progress of the material world, and that it applies with equal force to man's nature, and to his progress as a member of the moral, social, industrial, and political world.

=Leckie, A.S.= (Editor, The Joliet Herald, Joliet, Ill.)

We may oppose or improve human legislative enactments, but not natural laws. Socialism, in its logical perfection, would attempt this.

The species improves and advances only through the struggle for existence (or preferment). The law of the survival or supremacy of the fittest is immutable in natural conditions. Remove from the petted squirrels the necessity of providing their winter's food, and they become unable to do so when the necessity again arises.

Ambition in compet.i.tion, carried if you will, to the extreme of cupidity and greed, are instincts as natural as that of self-preservation.

Without the incentive of reward in preferment, power or wealth, we should have no progress. Any enforced leveling of talent or ability would curb and eventually stop human advancement.

Possibly we are advancing too fast; the advance of Socialism may be a working of the natural law of compensation, destined to put a brake upon the wheels of a too rapid progress.

=Field, Walter Taylor.= (Author.)

I am opposed to such Socialism as emphasizes "cla.s.s-consciousness" and the entire abolition of private property. True Socialism should make absolutely no distinction between cla.s.ses, but should hold mankind as a common brotherhood. I am opposed to the entire abolition of private property as removing one of the strongest incentives to labor and progress. We need social reform badly enough, and a check upon inheritances and large acc.u.mulations of private property, but I believe the remedy for most of our social evils lies in encouraging the wage-earners to become small farmers and small artisans and in protecting them by stringent legislation against the encroachments of large business.

I am heartily in sympathy with the spirit of Socialism, but not with its methods.

=Barstow, George Eames.= (Business man.)

I am opposed to Socialism, first, because the All-Wise One in His inscrutable wisdom in arranging for His people for occupying the promised land, provided that every man should go and take up the land alloted to him.

Second: The Creator knew what would best contribute to the social and economic order of humanity in all time to come.

Third: Socialism means a community of property. I am opposed to such a social and economic order, believing same to be against the public welfare. Society has now too many drones, lazy and idle from choice.

Such cla.s.s would be largely increased under Socialism. The subject's agitation reveals such product.

Fourth: What is needed in these days is an increase of social justice, not social injustice.

Fifth: A man should enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and can only do this as he is at liberty, under wise laws, to exercise his full capacity for himself; leaving to himself the right to contribute to others as he may choose.

Sixth: There are some vital questions to be solved for the betterment of the people at large, concerning social, economic and industrial order; but, their best solution will not be found in Socialism. Many n.o.ble and patriotic men and women are devoting money and life to these ends, and will in due time accomplish, through wise laws, the purposes for which they strive and which will be for the healing and uplifting of the peoples of the earth.

=Lee, Elmer.= (Physician, Author, Inventor, Lecturer and Editor.)

Life is experimental and whatever man wishes to try in the hope of bettering his condition will neither hurt him in the long run, and probably not better him.

Each new generation of men is largely unmindful of the experiments of men in the past, and feels that it has a solution for human trial, and disappointment, only to find when it is put to the test that, after all, it will not accomplish what was expected from it.

Man banded together for a common interest, will not go far before he meets reverse and disappointment; he will fall out with his a.s.sociate and quarrel with him; differences will arise which will lead to dissatisfaction and dissolution of the plan.

Man is primarily selfish and imaginative, and seeks to operate independently and erect for himself, his family and his affairs. Man has so much power and invention that he will not long consent to remain within any set limitation; he will break out and will prefer to fight his own battle.

Anything like common interest and division of labor, under Socialism or whatever name, will become unsatisfactory, if not to the generation which starts it, certainly to its children.

Any system will suffice, were man always in health, intelligent in the selection of food and in the care of his body. Were man willing and able to practice self-control, to avoid self-debasing habits, to abstain from tobacco, liquor, drugs and venery, it would not much matter what form of government prevailed.

Social form is less important than individual conduct. It will always be a struggle for man to survive the perils of life, such as temptation, indulgence, weakness, accident and disease. The test is personal and continuous, and cannot be s.h.i.+fted to the shoulder of society.

=Browns...o...b.., Jennie.= (Artist.)

I believe in a more rigid enforcement of our existing laws. They are a precious heritage from our forefathers; a resume of the wisdom of the ages. Where time and altered conditions have made it desirable to amend them, they should be amended by the wisest and purest statesmen of our land, guided by the trend of public thought.

I believe that the great need of this time and of all times, is not Socialism, better laws or absence of law, but capable, industrious and honest men and women, who strive to abide by and enforce the Golden Rule in all matters of character and conduct. "Our duties are of more consequence to us than are our rights."

=Lightner, Ezra Wilberforce.= (Journalist)

Some of the most profound of thinkers, some of the grandest of men and women, have written in regard to Socialism; some on the one side and some on the other. If in the mind of the majority of the most earnest and thoughtful and reasoning men and women the majority shall one day say that what is called Socialism is a stride in the process of slow evolution which has brought us to the measure of civilization now recognized, then whether or not we are yet living when that time comes, we must accept that condition as one of the processes of evolution and try the experiment.

I don't believe that at this time anybody can say clearly whether he or she is a Socialist except in vague theory. There are too many bases for doubt, as there are in regard to the finality of the political systems in active operation today. One thing that can't be doubted is that from the date of the Republic of Plato, the Utopia of Moore, the writing of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the "Voyage of Icaria" of Etienne Capet, the essays of Proudhon, St. Simon, Fourier, "Das Kapital" of Karl Marx, the tremendous labor of Liebknecht, Bebel, La.s.salle, Singer, William Morris, the English artist, poet and philosopher, John Ruskin, and a host of others, the increase in numbers of the supporters of the Socialist ideal has been one of the most remarkable of economical evangels.

Yet with all this I think that a long process of educational work would be necessary to prepare mankind for the experiment, if it be possible to make it a success. William Morris, before he had declared outright for Socialism, wrote his "Earthly Paradise:"