OCR Text |
Show SOCIALIST SAYINGS. The very fact that men are dependent depend-ent upon the owners of the machinery of production for tho privilege of employment em-ployment limits their lives, render Ing them abject slaves, for life depend! de-pend! on labor. To tne statements that "Things are rkht." "Must bo so." "Can't be changed," history defiantly and openly open-ly flings tho lie. All periodic conditions condi-tions of Intolerecce. misery or degradation degra-dation hare been endorsed and sustained sus-tained by those who profited by them, or upon whose economic Interests those conditions depended. The only difference (and all-Inclusive) which characterizes the Socialist Social-ist Ivibor party from the other alleged al-leged Socialist organizations In America Is the former's honesty In the labor movement Socialism Is primarily an economic question derived from the most prominent prom-inent and Important experience of history (which is the written statement state-ment of human events, for history la of no value unless It comprehends clearly the Imminent and direct effect ef-fect on the human race of all Its trials and actions). The history of this earth shows that there has "ever been a dlspartlty, yes, more, a struggle strug-gle between the two great social classes, the one gaining possession of tho earth and the then crude means I of production simply through supe- ! rlor brute force, sometimes emphasized empha-sized by divine dispensation, so-called: so-called: the other great social class entirely dependent upon the former. That plain fact constitutes what Is known In Socialist thought as the class struggle, gradually developing through slavery, feudalism to capitalism, capital-ism, working with subtler methods, since now brute force has been eliminated elimi-nated to an extent, and subjugation to capital effected by other means of deception. In our modern life w'e find the means of production and distribution In the hands of one class the capitalist capi-talist class while the other gToat clas tho working class (In the United States comprising about C9 per cent of tho population) operates them, thus producing all wealth, but owning neither the wealth nor tho means of producing wealth. Socialism demands that the means of production nnd distribution be owned by society and worked co-o-eraMvely, making every able human being a truly useful social unit. |