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Show I Marxian Club Socialists f : 1 t Any Question concerning Social- Editorial Committee: $ Itm answered. Address all com- KATE S. HILLIARD. Tj f. munlcations to K. S. H Hilar J. E A BATTELL. t' 4- 436 Hcrrlck Avenue. ROy E. SOUTHWICK. X , i v " ..... !ju t i i ...... . j...i.t-: i-i-jt--i-i i-i.-i-. loss barbarism and bootless destruo tlon arts to come upon im In our very midst. For as ideas grow, as education educa-tion spreads, so does the knowledge of bow, to turn the increasing powers of devastation to nocount Increa.-o nmong tho needy and the oppressc-a. Gunpowder helped to sweep away feudalism, with all Its beauty auJ all its chivalry,' when new forms arose from the decay of the old; now tar stronger explosives are arrayed i.:.iinst capitalism; while the ide.ts of the. time are as rife with revolu t:ou as they were when feudalism l 11. To avoid alike the crushing anarchy an-archy of tomorrow, we strive to heb forward the workers to the control of the State, as the only mcan whereby uch hideous trouble can bo avoided and production and exchange can bo organized for the benefit ot the country at large. Thus, therefore, propose that all should have th-? vote; not that the vote will free them from economic oppression, but because be-cause in this way alone is a peaceable ls?ue possible for the possessing classes. A Sample of Reasoning. A sample of the sort of reasoning hat theologians apply against Socialism Social-ism is furnished by the Cleveland 'Catholic L'nivcrse" iu iu reasons for attacking "the craze for dirigible balloons bal-loons and airships." The "Catholic L'nivcrse" declare.-; it does "not think thai the Creator intended tint man should inhabit tho air or to fly like the birds," and the paper proceeds to demonstrate lU thesis wiih the l-asonlng that "else He (the Creator) would have furnished him (man) with "slugs," on account of which thj "Catholic1 Universe" Is of the opinion that "airships should he legally v.: - ' ' THE ONE ISSUE. Which Confronts the Workers is to Abolish Private Ownership In Means of Production Fight Must be Fought on Class Lines. What wo have to face Is a bitter class antagonism between the classes vbo own the means of production which they use to enslave their fellows fel-lows to those means of production and ib- laborers who are thus economi t cally and socially enslaved. Wl-h theso laborers must be numbered a large portion of tho lowest middle-tlHss middle-tlHss who practically depeud upon and aro a portion of the proletariat, e'erks etc., who are learning how tncy are being exploited themselves oy their rraployers. and the domestic ten-ant, whose servile, degraded positions po-sitions will be felt more and more a education spreads. Here Is the last class of'ntagonlsra, which ipdeed Is world-wide1 tho antagonism between j ihe Blaves of the machine, the mero i social engines for producing surplus alue and contributing to luxury. .,inct tho capitalist class and their war. We know it; wc arc preparing 1 r it; wo lojolco at its near approach. ap-proach. Wc mean to break down competition, and to substitute universal univer-sal organization and eu-operatio:: There lie around us the neceury methods: they need but to be applied. Fut there are many difficulties and clangers, the power of wealth is great, tie unscrapulousnois of property knows no bounds? We are well I ware of this; we see and do not 5-hrink from the inevitable struggle. The Revolution is prepared iu the womb of society, it needs but one strenuous and organized effort lo t '.inlfest the new period In lecul and j-eknowledced shape to the world. To attempt to return to the old form of Individual production would be at the same reactionary and anarchal. We cannot. If wr would, so put back the hands upon the di.tl of human development. It is nowise desirable we should The increased power of man over nature is gained by co-op-vratlcn. bv social machinery, by ns-socla-ed labor, by skilfully concerted oik. This has b?en due to countess count-ess ages of growth and development, involving often tho most horrible op hangerson, the landlords All o'her antagonisms, complicated as they were have now laded into this slm i pie unmistakable hostility of clearly ; , defined Inimical Interests between the proletariat and the bourgeoisi. The Injuctlce of Today. Proletariat production capitalist impropriation; workers make traders take. Socialized production: individual individ-ual exchange. Work in concert: ex change at war. Supremacy ot town: subservience of country. Overcrowd- j ed cities: empty fields. Such are the , briefest possible statements of th" economical and social forms which result In our present anarchy, not lor ouo class alone, though that suffers suf-fers far the most, but for all. And tho system, as a whole. Is now world vMe, though In different shapes. Cap jauIuo hr nlanrf -Art, ir- prrsslon, but Over producing mo.e wealth with less labor. We inherit I no results of this long martyrdom of man lo the torms ni" production Mid exchange. 11 Is, for us to tan: hold of and use these improvements for Ihe ciilrauchiscment of the people cud for the establishment ol happl-l.css happl-l.css and organized contentment. After these instances of disintegration disintegra-tion and disorder, the ugliness, a:lf . nd udulteration seem comparatively trilling. So long as competitive cow-uierce cow-uierce and production ior profit continue, con-tinue, ba.-ed upon wage-slavery below, no change for the bettor can be v.roucht. As capitalism saps ail healthy social relations aud reduces even the closest connection between tne sexes to a mere question of bargain bar-gain and s-ale, so it threatens to do-snov do-snov the siu-ints of all art - that i. strlctod." Upon tlie same principle tri-- Creator never Intended man to travel by steamboats and steam cars, else II,? would have furnished man v.ith a steam boiler in his slomadi; ami the Creator never Intended man to have literature pl?utii'ul nnd cheap, J els? lie would have furnished man v. ith a Hoe Perfected Pre -s and Mer-tenthaler Mer-tenthaler typesetting anatomy; and the Creator, never iutended millions of men to deliberate in parliaments, else He would bavo furnished rna:i v.ith a representative government anatomical an-atomical member. Furthermore, up on the same principle that airships i.'tould be restricted by law, stcr.m. the press and representative govern-t govern-t icnt sho lid bo cor 'cr.n ;d as the encyclical of I'lus IX did those elements ele-ments of Progress, and as the pulpit generally anathematizes Socialism. of the external beauty of life, and 'o reduce tho world to a state of barbarism; bar-barism; a threat which can only be met by the demands 'f social order for the commuiiisintc of exchange and the means of production, so that labor la-bor may be freed from the merely u.-eless toll iu which it is to a large extent at present employed, so that vhilo machluery Is usel for performing perform-ing labor repulsive to nu n, the lntel-lipentce lntel-lipentce of the workmen may be ma le available f'.-r the higher needs of tlie community, so that the greater and oetter part of productive labor mav lecome voluntary reasonable and pleasurable, c.xerclso of the human ljcultles. Instead of a compulsory, do grading and unhappy struggle for existence, ex-istence, human in nothing save i's suCcring. the tragedy of tho battle against starvation. Individuality Is Crushed Today. How then wouid individuality, that unceasing cry of the bore and the dullard, dul-lard, be stunted by a system which should leave full iday to the hi?h-tt-t acuities of every man in'icturu !'r Trifling, pleasant social labor, nay. which should develop tbos.- faculties lor all classes far more than they ifrspoctlve of all nationalities, grabs Its profits Irrespective of all creeds end conditions; capital Is International, Interna-tional, unsectarlan. destitute of regard re-gard for humanity or religion. The proletariat mjst learn from the sjfiteni which they have to overthrow to be equally indifferent to class, creed or color, religion or nationality. bo iong as the Individuals sink the.r personal objects in a Vosolutc endeavor en-deavor against tho common enemy. When a glut of goods exists ou one band, and men eager for those. g"0('. end anxlouB to work stand Idle and foodless on tho other, when those two fKCtors of . well-beiug cannot be brought together because of the necessity ne-cessity to produce for profit which the very glut Itself prevents, surely anarchy In production aud exchange has been Jriven to the last ditch of pbsurdlty. AVhen hundreds of thou-tands thou-tands of children are brought into the world under euch conditions that pood food, good health, good education educa-tion are for them Impossible the essential es-sential foundations though all three are, of true morality and sound citizenship cit-izenship In later life surely here too iho anarchy in our commonest social relations Is clearly manifested. When lro we, look around at the complete dlislon between classes, their utter Ignorance of what one another think mi feel, the incapacity of men aDd women of different classes to sit comfortably com-fortably at the same meal table though' of tho same race, language md creed, here, even apart from the iiecessary antagonism of economical Interests, the social anarchy whicii the middlcvclassoa call order once uorc stares us In the face. We say onco more this is a clas1? f-ro developed today: inner sucn a system, where mankind collectively controlled their means of production, with machinery ever improving by the renins of their fellows, but used for instead of again! the mas of the human race, men would at length be really free in every senoO, economical, economi-cal, social and political, save that they would no longer possess the ficedoni to enslave nnd embruto their follow men Individuality is crushod today In every direction. The p"or slave to the machine, the oci -worked hiud, or domestic drudge have no lime for individuality, no strengtn left for their own education or development. de-velopment. Under our present bi-trm bi-trm there is no individuality for the reass of mankind. Is This Utopian. For reconstruction and reorganization, reorganiza-tion, therefore, we Socialists continually' continu-ally' strive, looking to the completest physical, moral and intellectual development de-velopment or every human being as the highest form of the social stale, as the best and truest happluess for every individual and for every das-:, where, as none need overwork, so roue shall be able to force others to work for their profit. And this is Utopian! Nay; it was Utopian, perhaps, per-haps, when Iho powers of man over nature were trifling compared with, what they are today, and mere division divi-sion of labor almost necessarily Involved In-volved the formation of casts and cIhsscb. But now steam, electricity. I tin' forces growing dally under our hand., render equality a necessity un- |
