Part 16 (1/2)
VII Afterword.
Morality is the greatest thing in the world; but paradoxical as it may seem, there is one greater thing, liberty--the liberty which is freedom to learn, interpret, live and teach the truth as it is revealed by the facts or acts of nature. Without this freedom there can be no morality, and of course no true religion, politics or civilization.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
In northern climes, the polar bear Protects himself with fat and hair, Where snow is deep and ice is stark, And half the year is cold and dark; He still survives a clime like that By growing fur, by growing fat.
These traits, O bear, which thou transmittest Prove the Survival of the Fittest.
To polar regions waste and wan, Comes the encroaching race of man, A puny, feeble, little bubber, He has no fur, he has no blubber.
The scornful bear sat down at ease To see the stranger starve and freeze; But, lo! the stranger slew the bear, And ate his fat and wore his hair; These deeds, O Man, which thou committest Prove the Survival of the Fittest.
In modern times the millionaire Protects himself as did the bear: Where Poverty and Hunger are He counts his bullion by the car: Where thousands perish still he thrives-- The wealth, O Croesus, thou transmittest Proves the Survival of the Fittest.
But, lo, some people odd and funny, Some men without a cent of money-- The simple common human race Chose to improve their dwelling place; They had no use for millionaires, They calmly said the world was theirs, They were so wise, so strong, so many, The Millionaires?--there wasn't any.
These deeds, O Man, which thou committest Prove the Survival of the Fittest.
--Mrs. Charlotte Stetson.
I. SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM.
The working cla.s.s and the employing cla.s.s have nothing in common.
There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing cla.s.s, have all the good things of life.
Between these two cla.s.ses a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a cla.s.s, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.
We find that the centering of management of the industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing cla.s.s. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing cla.s.s to mislead the workers into the belief that the working cla.s.s have interests in common with their employers.
These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working cla.s.s upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.
Instead of the conservative motto, ”A fair day's wage for a fair day's work”, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, ”Abolition of the wage system”.
It is the historic mission of the working cla.s.s to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the sh.e.l.l of the old.--Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World.
The following Synopsis of Scientific Socialism will serve both as a summary of and supplement to my little book. It is the introductory part of a catechism (a series of questions and answers) ent.i.tled ”Scientific Socialism Study Course” published by Charles H. Kerr & Company, 341 East Ohio Street, Chicago, and is reprinted here by their consent, with certain changes in the interests of brevity and perspicuity. As a whole this short Study Course of only thirty small pages in large type is the greatest piece of catechetical literature of which I have any knowledge.
Even the synopsis as given here contains more of the education which makes for the good of the world than all the catechisms of all the churches. The Catechism was published in 1913.
1. How do you explain the phenomena of History?
Ans.: History, from the capitalist point of view, is a record of political and intellectual changes and revolutions of so-called great men, wherein the economic causes for these acts and changes are ignored or concealed; but, from the socialist view point, history reveals a series of cla.s.s struggles between an exploited wealth-producing cla.s.s and an exploiting ruling cla.s.s over the wealth produced.
2. What effect have ”great men” had on history?
Ans.: Great men were simply ideal expressions of the hopes of some cla.s.s in society that was becoming economically powerful. They formed a nucleus around which a cla.s.s gathered itself in attaining economic conquests in its own interest, and in establis.h.i.+ng social inst.i.tutions in harmony with, and for the perpetuation of, such cla.s.s interests.