Part 10 (2/2)

[”Woman Under Socialism,” by Bebel, page 275 of the 1904 edition in English.] Frederick Engels, in his book, ”Origin of the Family,” teaches that the emanc.i.p.ation of women is primarily dependent on the reintroduction of the whole female s.e.x into the public industries.

[”Origin of the Family,” by Engels, page 90 of Untermann's 1907 translation into English.] In ”The Call,” New York, February 27, 1910, it is stated that ”the man who professes himself to be a Socialist, and then says that under Socialism men will provide for women, is wide of the mark.”

Keeping clearly before their minds the fundamental principle of Socialism, the people of America must be careful to distinguish between Socialists ruling under our present form of government, and Socialists ruling in a Socialist state. Possible success in the first case would by no means indicate success in the latter. If our citizens are cautious in this respect, the enemies of our country will not dare to boast of the so-called success of Socialism in those places in which the members of their party, elected to public office, may have given a good administration under our const.i.tutional system of government.

Though Socialism, in the strictest sense of the word, is concerned exclusively with economics, still this does not mean that those who profess it do not advocate, as part of their program, many pet projects not appertaining to economics. By a vast majority, the members of the Socialist Party either advocate atheism and opposition to religion, or at least do not oppose those Socialists who do. Most of them, too, in their cravings for what is base and low, are by no means adverse to seeing free-love reign supreme in their contemplated state. The word _Socialism_ is, therefore, frequently used in a broader sense, and is made to include not only the common doctrine advocating the democratic form of government under which the citizens would collectively own and manage the princ.i.p.al means of production, transportation and communication, but also those other doctrines that are taught or silently approved by the majority. It is in this broader sense, then, that the opponents of the Marxians justly claim that Socialism is atheistic, anti-religious, and immoral.

We are told by Hillquit in ”Everybody's,” October, 1913, page 486, that ”like all social theories and practical ma.s.s movements, Socialism produces certain divergent schools, b.a.s.t.a.r.d offshoots cl.u.s.tering around the main trunk of the tree, large in number and variety, but insignificant in size and strength. Thus we hear of State Socialism, Socialism of the Chair, Christian Socialism and even Catholic Socialism.”

Persons who call themselves Socialists may be divided into two cla.s.ses, in the first of which are those who are Socialists merely in name, for they go no further than to vote the party ticket. It is in the second cla.s.s that we find the real Socialists, men who besides severing all connections with the other political organizations and voting regularly for the Socialist candidates, have taken out members.h.i.+p cards which ent.i.tle them to vote on party policies by the payment of several dollars a year into the treasury of the party. Many of the first cla.s.s are, of course, not guilty of propagating atheism, free-love, and other radical doctrines. In fact, it often happens that they scarcely know that such things are taught by Socialists, for the deceitful Revolutionary orators and writers, having blinded them with vivid pictures of their misfortunes, lead them to believe that the movement is morally upright, and that the contemplated state of the future will bring them every blessing under Heaven.

But unless those who are Socialists merely in name sever their connection with the party of Karl Marx, it will not be long before many of them will lose all sense of honor, decency and morality. Indeed they often sink lower than the base character who composed the ”poem” that takes up half a page of ”The Call” of May 10, 1914. Though ”The Call”

seems to consider the ”poem” an excellent specimen of literature, or else uses the large type that it does in order to attract the attention of its readers to the sublime virtues of the author, the quotation of but a small part of the production will suffice to bring out its real worth and at the same time show us the benign effects of Socialist teachings:

”You who are exalted by pictures but not by people: you who wors.h.i.+p a book and a G.o.d rather than hearts and men and women: I'd rather have my world and its flesh and its devil than your heaven and its spirit and its G.o.d:....

And while I don't blame man for being base or praise man for being n.o.ble, I embrace man as my brother for being man: And there you have the whole story, my man intoxication: I am drunk with man: you see how it is: You can have your bibles: I don't need your christs: your creeds would be an insult to me: I have man: I am drunk with man: That's the secret of secrets: that's the confession of confessions: that's the inside of the inside of me: I don't expect you to take it in: drunk with man: no: that's too much like mockery to you: you shudder at it: To you man always comes last: man never comes first: G.o.ds, mountains, laws--they come first: man can take his chances: That's the rule of precedence as you have fixed it: that's the up and down and around of your cosmos: But I say no: I who am drunk with man can't give up my faith for your blasphemy: you who are sober with G.o.d.”

The attention of the reader must now be drawn to something of vital importance. There is no doubt that ”Knights of the Red Flag” have advocated many excellent social reforms, such as higher wages, shorter working hours and greater safety for laborers, legislation against trusts, and the prevention of child labor and political corruption.

Great credit would they deserve if their real object were not to gain votes to secure the establishment of a Socialist form of government. It is probable that before long, voting with true social reformers, they will see the materialization of many of the immediate demands enumerated in their platform. But it is to be remembered that no matter how many beneficial reforms Socialists may help to procure under our present const.i.tutional system, they thus in no way prove the superiority of a Socialistic government, democratic in form, in which the citizens would collectively own and manage the princ.i.p.al means of production, transportation, and communication. The reason is that our const.i.tutional government would still be in vogue, and the contradictory fundamental principle of Socialism could not be applied by the ruling Marxians.

Persons who judge the Socialist movement solely by the immediate demands of its political platform, or by social reforms inst.i.tuted after a political victory, understand very little either about Socialism or the methods and purposes of the Marxians. Yet this was the short-sighted manner in which the press persistently, and for a long time, viewed the tactics of Socialist politicians. Only a revolutionary movement far enough advanced to neglect gradual transformation by means of immediate demands would be able to sweep away by force, at a single stroke, all the old conditions of production, together with our present form of government, and the existing order of society.

The so-called ”Immediate Demands” of the Socialists may be termed political campaign Socialism or vote-catching Socialism. They are the sugar coating of the poisonous pill of Socialism itself. Their object is to attract and interest the voter, and at the same time keep his mind off of the fallacies of Socialism proper. They keep him from asking too many unanswerable questions about the detailed method of organization under a Socialist form of government--for instance, how the millions upon millions of government employes would be a.s.signed to positions that would suit them, and at the same time receive satisfactory remuneration for their labors.

These same immediate demands also give the voter a chance to find fault with our present system of government and to criticise it, thereby rendering it less able to withstand successive Socialist a.s.saults. The immediate demands are, of course, meant for the present day and even if they should materialize, under our present system, they could not be continued in a Socialist state, that would be necessarily weak, poverty-stricken, strife-ridden, politically corrupt and chaotic. It is one thing to make demands, quite another thing to be able to grant them.

A highway robber can demand a million dollars from the person whom he attacks, but that doesn't make the one a.s.saulted able to surrender the sum; nor would it prove that the robber himself could afford to pay a like amount if he should afterwards be held up for a million.

The immediate demands of the 1918 Congressional Platform of the Socialist Party are entirely too many conveniently to enumerate. They are cla.s.sed under

A--International Reconstruction.

Peace Aims.

Federation of Peoples.

B--Internal Reconstruction.

Industrial Control.

Railroads and Express Service.

Steams.h.i.+ps and Steams.h.i.+p Lines.

Telegraph and Telephone.

Large Power Scale Industry.

Democratic Management.

Demobilization.

The Structure of Government (i.e., of the present system of government).

Civil Liberties.

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