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 MAIN 
 
 
 FAVOR 
 
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GIFT OF 
 
Why I Am 
 In Favor of Socialism 
 
 SYMPOSIUM 
 
 Original Papers 
 
 EDWARD SILVIN 
 
 Sacramento, California 
 U. S. A. 
 

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 Copyright, 1913 
 
 BY EDWARD SILVIN 
 
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INDEX TO AUTHORS 
 
 Allen, Fred Hovey 31 
 
 Andrews, Eliza Frances 10 
 
 Andrews, Martin Register 12 
 
 Axon, Stockton 23 
 
 Baldwin, E. F 11 
 
 Baxter, James Phinney 11 
 
 Beard, Daniel Carter 11 
 
 Bigelow, Poultney 9 
 
 Broome, Isaac 15-16 
 
 Burgess, Gelett 8-9 
 
 Cazalet, Edward Alexander 31 
 
 Chancellor, William Estabrook 7-8 
 
 Clare, Israel Smith 24-25 
 
 Conger-Kaneko, Josephine 31 
 
 Cooke, George Willis 36 
 
 Cutler, James Elbert 5 
 
 Fisk, Everett Olin 9 
 
 Fleming, William Hansell 22 
 
 Gates, George Augustus 7 
 
 Helms, E. J 31 
 
 Hitchcock, Charles C 32-34 
 
 Hume, Gibson 17-21 
 
 James, George Wharton 35 
 
 James, W. E. S 25-27 
 
 Kalley, Ella Hartwig 29 
 
 Kinney, Abbot 30 
 
 Koeb, Otto 36 
 
 Levermore, Charles Herbert 29-30 
 
 London, Jack 5 
 
 Loveman, Robert 5-6 
 
 Noll, Aaron 34 
 
 O'Neill, John M 25 
 
 Parsons, Eugene 16-17 
 
 Peake, Elmore Elliott 27 
 
 Pease, Charles Giffin 13 
 
 Post, Louis Freeland 6 
 
 Russell, Charles Edward 34-35 
 
 Sawyer, iRoland Douglas 14 
 
 Schindler, Solomon ^ 23 
 
 Silvin, Edward 37 
 
 Sinclair, Upton 14 
 
 Smiley, James L 6 
 
 Strobell, George H 28-29 
 
 Towne, Elizabeth 12 
 
 Taylor, J. P 15 
 
 Weber, Gustavus Adolphus 27-28 
 
 Whitaker, Robert 22 
 
 White, Hervey 9-10 
 
 Whitson, John Harvey 10-11 
 
 Williams, S. B 15 
 
 273545 
 
Vvny I Am In Favor of Socialism 
 
 London, Jack. (Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I am an individualist, 
 and because in Socialism I see the only possible social organi- 
 zation that will give equal opportunity and an even chance to 
 every individual to develop and realize what is strongest and 
 best in him and in her, if you please. 
 
 Because Socialism is in line with social evolution, is fore- 
 shadowed as inevitable by today's social tendencies, was fore- 
 shadowed as inevitable by the social tendencies of ten thou- 
 sand years ago and ten thousand generations ago. 
 
 Because I am convinced that it is the only form of social 
 organization that will give a square deal to the little boys and 
 girls that are coming into the world today, tomorrow, and in 
 the davs after tomorrow's morrow. 
 
 Cutler, James Elbert. (University Professor.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism as regards its aims and pur- 
 poses, because I believe it to be in this respect in harmony with 
 the fundamental principles of social progress. 
 
 Loveman, Robert. (Poet.) 
 
 I believe Plato favored an ideal commonwealth, and I 
 favor Plato. 
 
 Walt Whitman was inclined towards the Utopian theory 
 and Walt was a poet with a "yawp," that was perhaps bar- 
 barian but it was emphatic. 
 
 I am something of a Socialist a little of a Communist I 
 hope not much of an Anarchist and I believe with Lincoln 
 
that "God must love the common people He made so many 
 of them." 
 
 Wm. Morris, the English poet, had Socialistic theories 
 and headed a movement in 1884, I believe so we have plenty 
 of example. I do not hate the rich but I pity the poor and 
 I do not think a few men should own billions and hoard the 
 wealth and that millions of human kind starving, barely 
 exist. "We are still savage. 
 
 Post, Louis Freeland. (Editor, The Public, Chicago, 111.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because it aims at abolishing the 
 exploitation of labor. 
 
 Smiley, James L. (Clergyman.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because First: It stands for 
 absolute justice. It guarantees to every one the full product 
 of his labor. It provides that children and infirm and aged 
 persons be cared for by the strong. It demands that all the 
 natural resources of the earth be equitably administered for 
 all the inhabitants. 
 
 Second: Socialism will abolish capitalism, which is a grand 
 system of gambling. 
 
 Third : Socialism will abolish the evil fruits of capitalism, 
 such as internecine commercial competition, the white slave 
 traffic, preventable poverty and disease, and war itself. 
 
 Fourth : Socialism means brotherhood, industrial and com- 
 mercial. It, therefore, harmonizes with the teachings of the 
 Bible, making the Ten Commandments and the "Sermon on the 
 Mount" perfectly practicable. 
 
 Fifth: As an excellent example of its practical value, So- 
 cialism will solve the intricate liquor problem. By public own- 
 ership this traffic will be purified from all adulterations and 
 excessive abuse, allowing (in harmony with the Bible) the 
 temperate use of pure beverages. 
 
 Sixth: Socialism is the economic expression of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 G 
 
Gates, George Augustus. (President, Fisk University.) 
 
 I don't think I am wholly in favor of Socialism,, though I 
 believe it would, even if actually in power, be better than the 
 present reign of stark capitalism. 
 
 I am in favor of about nine-tenths of what Socialism advo- 
 cates. Nearly all of the world's real troubles arise from self- 
 ishness. Some way must at last be found out of that regime. 
 The world is keyed to mutual helpfulness ; consequently there 
 is and ought to be discord as long as we stupidly play the 
 great game of life in the false key. There is, as a matter of 
 fact, mutual helpfulness anyhow; we cannot live without each 
 other, and more so as our civilization rises. The trouble is 
 that in the present order this helpfulness is an incident, not 
 the motive. All gospels must unite to make it the motive. 
 
 Chancellor, William Estabrook. (Lecturer and Author.) 
 
 It all depends upon the definition and description of So- 
 cialism. I am heartily in favor of what I call Socialism. I was 
 indeed mayoralty candidate in my city upon a Socialistic 
 ticket. I do not see how any good or intelligent man can op- 
 pose my notions of Socialism. To illustrate : I believe that 
 God made the earth for all of us and that it is a crime, vile and 
 terrible, to allow any man or woman as landlord to collect rent 
 from the father of a family or the mother of babies for a place 
 upon which to rear their children God's children, my brothers. 
 Yet I, myself, am both a landlord and a rent tenant because of a 
 pitiful legalistic and economic regime that does not allow me 
 to solve my problem. I am a landlord of a trust estate and yet 
 unable to buy a home where my business is because I cannot 
 sell. It is a mere illustration. There are tens of thousands of 
 others as pertinent. 
 
 To illustrate again : I am sure that it is absurd and wicked 
 that some should rot in luxury without working, while -others- 
 die of the diseases of starvation though working diligently. I 
 am in favor of changing the statute laws so that these kings 
 shall no more be, than chattel slavery of blacks, or the punish- 
 ment of religious heresy by death. I believe that the Father 
 in Heaven does not intend the vicious inequitableness of this 
 
 7 
 
passing economic system and of this social regime upon which 
 the habit-minded look with such apish pleasure. I refuse to 
 eat the leavened bread of the Pharisees and to sit silent amid 
 these wrongs; but at the same time I suspect that I am rather 
 an opportunistic reformer, a Christian Socialist, perhaps a 
 Social Democrat, than a revolutionary all-or-none, now-this- 
 minute Socialist, for I can be charitable to most other men 
 who still worship the idols of the market-place. Some, how- 
 ever, I cannot forgive; I cannot forgive the hypocrites or the 
 malicious. 
 
 Burgess, Gelett. (Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I believe that co-opera-^ 
 tion, rather than competition will the sooner bring about tin- 
 brotherhood of man. 
 
 . Because the conditions that surround the majority of man- 
 kind are continually growing worse, and Socialism offers a 
 radical solution for the problem of the greatest happiness for 
 the greatest number. 
 
 Because the rich are steadily growing richer, and the 
 poor, poorer, under the present industrial system. 
 
 Because the concentration of this wealth in the hands of 
 a few has shown the possibility of a centralized control of the 
 industries, and has taught methods of handling big business, 
 so that these activities may and should be in the hands of the 
 people. 
 
 Because of the enormous saving through co-operation, 
 both time and opportunity will be increased for the benefit 
 of the people. 
 
 Because the use of this time may be used by the people 
 for education, for culture, for travel and for larger mental 
 growth. 
 
 Because this change in economic system will emancipate 
 woman by making her man's equal and will thereby develop 
 her mind, her self-respect, and her inventive capacity. 
 
 Because with a rational industrial system and the oppor- 
 tunity for leisure natural and sexual selection will work more 
 freely amongst men and women by giving both a wider choice, 
 a better approximation of the ideal mate. 
 
Because this effect will result in a benefit and happiness 
 not only to the present but to the future of the race. 
 
 Because Socialism is the only project which contemplates 
 these benefits. 
 
 Bigelow, Poultney. (Author and Barrister.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because it is the teachings of 
 our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of his predecessors, the Buddhists, 
 and before them the people who followed the example of Rama 
 or Brahma. 
 
 Fisk, Everett Olin. (President of the Fisk Teachers' Agencies.) 
 
 While I do not count myself a Socialist in the extreme 
 sense and shall never vote a Socialist ticket. I lean very 
 strongly toward public ownership of public utilities and find 
 myself in cordial sympathy with the view of some of my inti- 
 mate friends who will vote for Mr. Debbs. Just how fast the 
 public should assume control of public utilities I am not clear, 
 but I feel quite sure that we should move in that direction and 
 keep public ownership in mind as an ideal. Whatever embar- 
 rassments may arise, and certainly embarrassments must arise 
 in any change of program, I feel that the disadvantages would 
 be more than offset by the education of the public and by the 
 cultivation of public spirit which would naturally accompany 
 the gradual introduction of public control. 
 
 The fact that the post-office, the public schools and in many 
 cities water* supply, street lighting and transportation have 
 been well managed by the public, promises well for extension 
 of public control and I think we are moving along toward this 
 perhaps as fast as can be expected, in view of our imperfect 
 human nature. 
 
 White, Hervey. (Novelist and Poet.) 
 
 Socialism seems to me the most practical plan for the indi- 
 viduals of a highly specialized and complicated society to share 
 
 9 
 
the duties, the responsibilities, and the rewards of their organi- 
 zation. 
 
 It is the logical development of our system of combination 
 or " trusts" that has already supplanted competition. It will 
 do more to put the wealth produced by intellect and labor into 
 the possession of the earners than any program I 'have met 
 with. 
 
 Andrews, Eliza Frances. (Author and College Professor.) 
 
 There are so many reasons why I am a Socialist and why 
 everybody should be one, that it would require a book to give 
 them all. A few of them are : 
 
 First: Because I believe that those who do the work of 
 the w T orld should receive the full product of their labor, and 
 not be forced, as under the capitalist system, to pay a tribute 
 from their toil for the support of useless idlers. 
 
 Second: I believe that "the earth and the fullness there- 
 of" was provided by nature for the benefit of all her children, 
 and not as the "vested interest" of a few greedy monopolists. 
 
 Third : As history teaches us through the example of Jesus 
 Christ and all who have rendered the greatest and noblest serv- 
 ices to mankind, that, love of greed and personal gain is not 
 an incentive, but a hindrance to noble deeds. I believe that 
 Socialism, by removing this hindrance, will leave men free to 
 follow the higher promptings of their nature, and through the 
 noble incentives it offers, hasten the evolution of the race to a 
 higher plane. 
 
 Whitson, John Harvey. (Novelist.) 
 
 At present I am a Progressive. But I can see that our in- 
 |dustrial system is breaking down. As men rise in the scale of 
 humanity they reaeh a point, and it is now near, when the 
 / exploitation of the weaker by the stronger can no longer be 
 / tolerated. I think present conditions clearly show that the 
 government (the people) should own all such natural monopo- 
 lies as coal, oil, minerals and the like ; and that the railways, 
 express companies, and the big machinery of transportation 
 
 10 
 
should also be government conducted, like the post-office. When 
 that has been accomplished, further steps in that line can be 
 taken, if the people deem that best. In so far, I am in favor 
 of Socialism, and stand ready to go farther when it seems de- 
 sirable and the people are ready for it. That is, have risen to it. 
 
 Beard, Daniel Carter. (Author and Artist.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I am not afraid of their 
 ever introducing into this country the Socialism of Carl Marx, 
 and I do believe that by their propaganda, their enthusiasm 
 and insistency, they are forcing people to think who otherwise 
 would drift along in the same old rut, and anything that makes 
 the people think stands for progress, although it may not be 
 progress along the lines advocated. 
 
 Baldwin, E, F. (Editor, Star, Peoria, 111.) 
 
 Socialism is a beautiful dream, but when we wake up, we 
 still have to scratch for a living. Under Socialism, one man 
 is as good as another, and generally a good deal better. Pov- 
 erty is a crime. Therefore, every poor man ought to be in jail. 
 Socialism is a panacea for all the present ills. The trouble is, 
 nobody wants to apply it. Under the present system, it is every 
 man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. Under 
 Socialism every man is hindmost. Every honest man now is a 
 Socialist. The trouble is, there are no honest men. I never 
 knew but one honest Socialist editor, and he has just committed 
 suicide. 
 
 Baxter, James Phinney, (Author and Ex-Mayor, Portland, Me.) 
 
 Socialism is subject to several definitions. There is a 
 Christian Socialism which embodies the spirit of the second 
 precept: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It is pa- 
 tient and long-suffering; wise in its efforts of helping men to 
 advance by righteous ways to the stature of true manhood. 
 
 11 
 
Towne, Elizabeth, (Editor and Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of the Socialist ideal, because it aims to take 
 care of all the people, affording equal opportunity for every- 
 body to develop, laying no extra burdens on any one person 
 or class of persons. I believe the Socialist ideal to be the 
 ripened fruit which the world is to bring forth. 
 
 But I do not believe in the Socialist practice of forcing 
 the ripening of that fruit. In other words, I do not believe the 
 world is ready to do away with capitalism. And I do not be- 
 lieve in the inopportunism of Socialists. I do not believe in 
 tearing off the husks of capitalism before human intelligence 
 is ripe for expression on the higher plane. As long as Social- 
 ists hold aloof, and will not co-operate with capitalism they 
 show themselves unfit to co-operate with all the people in the 
 world in the making of an ideal government without capital- 
 ism. The Socialists missed the chance of a life-time, yes. of a 
 hundred years, when they did not lead and nominate Theodore 
 Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson on their own ticket, instead of 
 putting up two men whom they know it is impossible to elect 
 this year, thus weakening the strength of Roosevelt, who is try- 
 ing to put into practice a whole lot of the Socialist program, 
 which the Socialists accused him of stealing from them. As if 
 the Socialists themselves did not steal every one of those ideas 
 from somebody else ! Why, Confucius ran a Socialist government 
 five hundred years before Christ. I am opposed to the Social- 
 ist practice of hypnotising itself with the working class con- 
 sciousness, in opposition to all other classes. Because of Social- 
 ist inopportunism others will have to do the practical work of 
 putting into practice the Socialist ideal. Theodore Roosevelt 
 has done and is doing more to bring Socialism into practice 
 than any other one man in the world today. 
 
 Andrews, Martin Register. (College Professor and Editor.) 
 
 I have listened attentively to the talks of Socialist ora- 
 tors, who seem to be honest, earnest men, who have a strong 
 desire to do something for the betterment of "poor, sad hu- 
 manity." With many of the reforms for which they plead I 
 am heartily in sympathy. 
 
 12 
 
Pease, Charles Giffin, M. D. (Reformer and Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism, the fundamental basis of which, 
 as I understand Socialism, is economic co-operation or the indi- 
 vidual laboring for the good of the whole ; for the reason that 
 competition is based upon selfishness, and stimulates selfish- 
 ness. 
 
 Competition or doing business for individual gain is re- 
 sponsible for the placing of liquor saloons on almost every 
 other block of some of our avenues ; for the opening of a still 
 larger number of tobacco stores for the sale of the most poison- 
 ous weed grown ; for the opening of gambling halls, race tracks, 
 questionable resorts and brothels of all kinds. Doing business 
 for personal gain is an incentive to foister upon the people 
 intoxicating liquors, tobacco and other harmful drinks and ar- 
 ticles by means of alluring advertisements ; the adulteration of 
 foods ; the maintaining of high prices, thus depriving the poor, 
 who are victims of the competitive system, of the necessities of 
 life. 
 
 Under the present system, the anxiety of the employed 
 upon the advent of "dull times," lest they may lose the needed 
 employment ; the unrest, the chicanery, the criminality and the 
 perversion of normal appetites resulting therefrom, is opposed 
 to the best interests of the race morally, mentally and physi- 
 cally. 
 
 'Competition or doing business for personal gain, develops 
 the worst there is in man. Co-operation or the individual 
 laboring for the whole, brings out or develops the best there 
 is in man and establishes true brotherhood. The greatest bene- 
 factors the world has ever known have labored for the uplift 
 of the race without personal material gain as an incentive, but 
 with the full knowledge that their labors would mean for them 
 persecution or perhaps the Cross. 
 
 Under Socialism, the whole moral atmosphere would be 
 changed and the individual, and consequently, the race would 
 be enriched in the development of qualities that make for 
 peace, joy, love and normality, as man would merge from the 
 influence of the present conditions into the influence of the 
 conditions under Socialism. 
 
 13 
 
Sawyer, Roland Douglas (Clergyman and Author, Ware, Mass.) 
 
 We of the present generation come into a world where the 
 swamps are cleared, the forests felled, the soil ready for our 
 seed, roads of gravel, steel, and across the trackless waters 
 connect us ; great machines of iron and steel are ready to take 
 upon their tireless muscles the work of the world and the 
 human race today is rich so rich that it can easily supply the 
 material needs of every soul. 
 
 But still over half the race are in want, just as though we 
 were poor. 
 
 The only thing needed is a scientific organization of indus- 
 try, and Socialism is a scheme for such scientific organization. 
 Therefore, I, as being intelligent to the present-day conditions, 
 favor Socialism. 
 
 Of course, those who are selfishly receiving personal gains 
 out of the present system, and those who live in the ideas of 
 the dead, will howl for "things as they are," but more and 
 more we must firmly (though kindly) show them the door 
 they don't belong with us of this day. 
 
 I might also add that it is necessary for me to advocate 
 Socialism to square myself with my profession ; I am a minister 
 of the Gospel; as such I advocate before men that there is a 
 loving Father in Heaven ; that Jesus was the divine, ideal man ; 
 that human beings have souls that will not die with the body. 
 I could not advocate these things without blushing if I did not 
 at the same time condemn the existing social Order for the 
 existing social order kills the souls in men, the ideals of Jesus 
 cannot live in it, and should it continue we could not believe 
 in a loving Father who rules things. For me to preach the gos- 
 pel of Jesus without at the same time demanding social revo- 
 lution, would be for me to confess that I was either a mental 
 prostitute or a moral pervert, and I hope I am neither. 
 
 Sinclair, Upton. (Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because it is impossible for me 
 to be happy while living under a system which deprives others 
 of the fruits of their labor. 
 
 I' 
 
Taylor, J. P. (Manufacturer, Winston^Salem, N. C.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I think that the time 
 has about arrived for society to take into its own hands the 
 operation of the means of producing and distributing the 
 wealth by which it lives and progresses. 
 
 I have become conscious that the present mode of produc- 
 tion and distribution of wealth does not fill society's require- 
 ments ; that private ownership is no longer necessary in the 
 machinery of wealth production and distribution, either as 
 owning or managing; that the whole machinery is operated 
 by hired men ; that these hired men can better be used to pro- 
 duce social wealth for use than private wealth for profit. 
 
 Williams, S. B. (Clergyman, Eureka Springs, Ark.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because it is more than a politi- 
 cal party. It is a world movement having as its fundamental 
 principles, the teachings of Jesus. It is an intensely practical 
 interpretation of such teachings. Socialism stands for the 
 brotherhood of the human race. It is a constructive program 
 of economics that will result in the emancipation of the wage 
 slave. Many good people misunderstand Socialism, be- 
 cause some of its most ardent advocates blunder in their teach- 
 ing, and its growth is retarded by the fact that skeptics and 
 infidels become prominent in leadership and try to foster their 
 private religious beliefs on the movement, but in time all such 
 will find their proper level, and all true, earnest Christians will 
 be glad to embrace the propaganda, and Socialism in its truest 
 aspects will help to usher in the kingdom promised by our Lord. 
 
 Broome, Isaac. (Sculptor, Lecturer, Inventor and Author, 
 Trenton, N. J.) 
 
 All good men poets, artists, moralists, philosophers, scien- 
 tists, economists, scholars have in all ages proclaimed the ideal 
 of a civilization, wherein all should help and protect each other, 
 to develop intelligence and destroy ignorance, which is the 
 root of all crime and misery. 
 
 15 
 
Socialism has for its proper idea the fulfillment of this 
 universal hope by uniting the world industrially, with the 
 object of abolishing poverty as the base of ignorance, and igno- 
 rance as the base of crime, injustice and disorganized society. 
 This is the ideal. An ideal impossible at present with society 
 composed of a few ignorant, predatory rich and a mass of 
 equally ignorant, predatory poor both destroyers of society's 
 substance, from the scientific, economic view. 
 
 Parsons, Eugene. (Editor.) 
 
 I am not altogether opposed to Socialism. I am willing to 
 see a move, yes, several moves, made in that direction. I am in 
 favor of municipal ownership of public utilities, such as gas, 
 water, electric light, street railways, etc. When franchises 
 for these utilities are sold or given away to an individual or 
 a company, they afford opportunities for private enrichment 
 at the expense of the people at large. 
 
 If such enterprises as water or lighting, or tramways, be 
 in the hands of the city fathers, the profits, if there be any, 
 go into the pockets of the common people, which is better than 
 A the piling up of fortunes by the favored few, known in com- 
 mon parlance as "big business." 
 
 It has been proved time and again that men of business 
 ability and initiative do have public spirit and are willing to 
 serve the people well, to give the attention requisite for suc- 
 cess in the management of public utilities. I have a case in 
 mind. The light plant of Ellsworth, Iowa, is a paying propo- 
 sition, although run by the town. Says the "Ellsworth News," 
 December 5, 1912 : 
 
 "Not only is it a question of being on a paying proposi- 
 tion, but the comfort of having good lights is worth consider- 
 able. The city fathers are to be congratulated upon the man- 
 agement of the light plant. Many dollars of expense would 
 have been added to the installation of the plant had they 
 charged anything for their services, but they had gone to a 
 great deal of trouble and a large amount of expense that they 
 had paid out of their own pockets, just because they were 
 enough interested in the welfare of the town to push things 
 along and make it a success." 
 
 
 16 
 
There it is in a nutshell unselfish service. So it is a mat- 
 ter that involves one of the fundamentals of human nature. 
 However, the altruistic sentiment will develop more and more 
 under a different system from the present, with all its inequali- 
 ties in the distribution of wealth. 
 
 The question is a large one, requiring full discussion. Let 
 the trial of municipal ownership and management be made, I 
 say. Time will tell how much of grafting will be done. Je 
 ne sais quoi. I for one am willing to risk it. 
 
 Furthermore, let us go one step toward Socialism in an- 
 other direction. I refer to the nationalization, of- railways. I 
 am in favor of it, and hold that all public-spirited citizens 
 should advocate it, whether Socialists or not. It would simpli- 
 fy things, and put an end to the extortionate charges of the 
 express companies, to say nothing of unfair freight rates. 
 
 Hume, Gibson, A. M,, Ph. D. (Head of the Department of 
 Philosophy, University of Toronto, Canada.) 
 
 To endorse and accept all the various conflicting and even 
 contradictory proposals loosely and popularly called Socialism 
 would indeed be absurd and ridiculous. Nevertheless, on the 
 whole the term Socialism has stood for constructive rather 
 than destructive plans. What might be termed Christian So- 
 cialism, or perhaps still better constructive Christian Social- 
 ism, has ideals and aims that I unhesitatingly adopt as noble, 
 just and right. When it comes to a program or plan to give 
 practical application and realization to these ideals there is 
 much room for debate and difference of opinion. Here, it 
 seems to me, we face real problems. 
 
 Christian theology dealing with the relations of God and 
 man succeeded long ago in definitely rejecting the abstract 
 atomism of atheism, and also, though perhaps not so clearly 
 and definitely, the pantheism which over-zealous for God for- 
 got to leave a place for human personality. 
 
 In our time modern Christianity is concentrating its 
 attention on the problems of the relation of mian to man, of 
 the individual to the community, and logically and consist- 
 ently with its past speculations opposes the extreme individ- 
 ualism that issues in anarchism and atomism, and also opposes 
 
 17 
 
the other extreme of communism which overshadows the indi- 
 vidual overmuch in its zeal for the collective standpoint, and 
 the opposition in this instance is the more notable because the 
 early Christian Church for a short time really tried the experi- 
 ment of having "all things in common." W'hile modern con- 
 structive Christian Socialism rejects the opposing panaceas 
 of a simple character offered by the extreme individualist on 
 the one hand and the extreme collectivist on the other, it 
 nevertheless sees in each of these one-sided proposals and 
 theories a certain measure of truth, and it therefore faces the 
 much more difficult and complex problem of trying to com- 
 bine and harmonize these partial truths in such a manner as 
 to secure a proper self-respecting individualism or personal 
 responsibility on the one hand, and an adequate collectivistic 
 co-operation on the other. 
 
 With this double aim and purpose in mind there has arisen 
 a beginning at least of a positive and constructive program 
 leading toward this goal. Emerging from the mediaeval twi- 
 light where the. fallacy was widespread that made religion a 
 thing apart, modern Christian thought is suspicious of any re- 
 ligious creed or profession which remains a merely intellectual 
 assent or declaration of faith, and demands that a true religion 
 should also permeate and transmute the life and issue in con- 
 duct touching and helping the lives and conduct of others. 
 
 The key to the Christian social position is the "Golden 
 Rule," not las a mere sentiment of kindliness, though that is 
 good as far as it goes, but it must be made to go further and 
 issue in a principle of action, a principle in action controlling 
 the practice, guiding and inspiring the actual conduct of life, 
 both in its individual and in its social or collective aspect. 
 
 At the outset, then, it respects and preserves the indi- 
 vidual, not by the negative and suicidal method of rejecting 
 the claims of society, but, on the contrary, insisting that the 
 individual can develop his moral personality only by accept- 
 ing the duties of social service, which when properly under- 
 stood becomes not a burden but a privilege, since in this way 
 alone may real self-hood 'become realized. 
 
 Zeal for the preservation of the other person inspired the 
 earlier attack on slavery ; it now reappears in a crusade against 
 industrial bondage. Corporations now resist control on the 
 plea that it is an interference with personal liberty. The Chris- 
 tian view-point never granted to the individual a selfish lib- 
 
 18 
 
erty of defying properly constituted authority, much less such, 
 right to a corporation. It now makes it perfectly plain that 
 the individual has duties, and to this view of the individual 
 it would be ludicrous for the corporation to appeal in its dis- 
 like to bow to social demands. 
 
 In international relations the claim of Christianity to be 
 under the Prince of Peace makes modern Christian Socialism 
 demand that other nations should be treated not simply as 
 good neighbors, but as actual brothers, since all are children 
 of the same Father. Hence it follows that the brutality, waste 
 and wickedness, the wholesale butchery and murder known 
 as war, must be condemned and opposed. Furthermore, all 
 militarism and jingoism, all journalistic or other stirring up of 
 bad feeling, leading to strife between different races, the 
 atavistic revival of ancient blood feuds or modern commercial 
 intrigues to reap profit out of the piling up of armaments 
 oppressing the common people, are all to be resisted. The spe- 
 cious claim that armies and navies are merely policy restrain- 
 ing criminals is easily seen to be erroneous, for if each army 
 claims to be a policy restraining criminals, it must follow that 
 each army is by the other army put among the class of crim- 
 inals. .And the fallacious claim that preparation for war is a 
 guarantee of peace, an insurance policy against war, is met 
 by the counterclaim that the best way in times of peace to 
 insure the continuance of peace is to extend the principles and 
 practices that teach the value of peace, that conduce to peace, 
 that make people desirous that peace may continue. The belli- 
 cose claim that our neighbors cannot or will not attack us if 
 we are powerful enough in armaments to intimidate them, 
 simply teaches other nations to pursue the same policy of at- 
 tempted intimidation, which can only breed ill will and ulti- 
 mately tend to provoke actual hostilities. 
 
 When disputes 'and misunderstandings arise, Christian 
 Socialism favors arbitration as a peaceful way of settling dif- 
 ferences, appealing to right and justice and intelligence, not 
 to brute force and blind passion. Hence the development of 
 the principles of international law and justice, the establish- 
 ing of international courts of appeal and arbitration in mat- 
 ters of divided jurisdiction or conflict of interests is explicitly 
 approved. Within the State, the principles of Christian Social- 
 ism demand that each person participate in governing, mak- 
 ing government to become simply collective self-control 
 
 19 
 
through willing co-operation. In proper theories of govern- 
 ment much progress has been made towards at least the par- 
 tial adoption of "the rule of the people, by the people, for the 
 people," though this miaxim is disregarded for earlier tyranni- 
 cal or paternal theories of government wherever women are 
 debarred from taking their share in the duty of directing and 
 controlling the laws governing all and affecting all, not only 
 men but also women. The reason for still excluding children 
 is simply due to the fact of their immaturity. 
 
 It is in the field of industry and commerce that the great- 
 est reconstruction will need to be made, for after having 
 struggled so long to secure the freedom of the individual when 
 it becomes clearly recognized that the only freedom that is 
 even partially secured is the negative one of being left alone 
 and that positive freedom of efficient action is lacking, there 
 is bound to be a new direction to the constant efforts of civili- 
 zation to secure the good of its component members. When 
 aggregations, companies, corporations, trusts, etc., become an 
 "imperium in imperio," turning the powerful engine of com- 
 bination into the work of consolidating selfish aggrandizement 
 and rendering impossible the development of a normal and 
 healthy life among the great masses of the unorganized, the 
 lesson taught by the power of organization is likely to be 
 learned by the masses, and this will point to the attempt to 
 secure the control for the co-operative community of all those 
 great fundamental factors that are sometimes called natural 
 monopolies, and the old regime that allowed these to be used 
 as toll houses on the highway of progress to levy tribute to 
 private monopoly and leading to the formation of a class of 
 idle rich on the one hand and of idle poor on the other, will 
 require most radical reconstruction in the interests of man- 
 kind. 
 
 As Christian Socialism has no simple formula to solve all 
 the manifold and complex economic difficulties, it must go 
 slowly, cautiously and experimentally. As it sympathizes witli 
 both the individualist and the collectivist in certain respects 
 in each case, it may seem to favor opposing policies, but per- 
 haps it is a case of walking forward by first moving up the 
 left foot, then the right foot. 
 
 Where competition is found by experience to be both 
 feasibly and advantageous, Christian Socialism will strive to 
 secure real competition and so will assist in removing any de- 
 
 20 
 
vice tariff or tax that favors one and penalizes the other. On 
 the other hand, where monopolistic control is unavoidable or 
 economically advantageous, it will strive to have such monopo- 
 listic enterprize strictly supervised and controlled by govern- 
 ment or where it is practicable owned and operated by the 
 community through its government, central or local. 
 
 Christian Socialism stands unambiguously <and clearly for 
 the sanctity and preservation of the family as a fundamental 
 social unit more significant that the disconnected individuals 
 in whose interests much legislation has been made bearing 
 heavily on the family and favoring unduly those who have 
 selfishly preferred to stand alone. As the perpetuation of 
 the race is one of the most obvious and outstanding of the pur- 
 poses of the family, marriage will need to be safeguarded still 
 more with this in view, that is to the securing of fit and proper 
 persons as parents through the guardianship complete super- 
 vision and restraint of the unquestionably unfit. Neverthe- 
 less, Christian Socialism could scarcely be expected to endorse 
 some of the wild and even shockingly cruel and barbarous pro- 
 posals of the eugenic group. 
 
 The child is the special ward and care of Christian Social- 
 ism, and here all the earlier paternalism of primitive Chris- 
 tianity may still find beneficent scope. The child should be 
 protected, nurtured and cared for, and trained in such a man- 
 ner as to prepare for the most efficient and noble service at 
 maturity. In the child we see embodied our hope for the fu- 
 ture, hence as the most promising road to the fulfillment of the 
 dreams of all social reformers and idealists we must eventually 
 learn to concentrate our efforts on the child. How can the 
 child be trained so as to develop most fully his latent aptitudes 
 and abilities so as to be capable on the one hand of reaching 
 his own greatest realization and on the other hand contributing 
 most to the good of the race? Surely we should all aim to 
 secure for each and every child the fullest development of all 
 his powers, physical, mental, moral-religious, and the moral- 
 religious most of all if we are to secure that altruistic charac- 
 ter, that unselfish disposition without which all plans, schemes 
 and programs must necessarily end in failure. 
 
 21 
 
Fleming, William Hansell. (Lecturer, Author and Editor.) 
 
 If by Socialism you mean that the individual in asserting 
 and demanding his rights should consider and grant equal 
 rights to all others in the community, then I am in favor of 
 Socialism. 
 
 Whitaker, Robert. (Clergyman and Editor.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I see no other way out 
 of the world-wide social distress which afflicts all the indus- 
 trial nations today. Capitalism has outlived its historic func- 
 tion, and is today a cause of intolerable oppression, immeas- 
 urable misery 'and irrepressible conflict. The whole order of 
 things by which society exists for the exploitation of the many 
 by the few, either through competition or private monopoly, is 
 fundamentally awry, and must be superseded by an order 
 which shall give us the largest measure of practicable co-oper- 
 ation for ends of common service. There can be no real or 
 lasting peace between capital and labor until society recognizes 
 the common rights of all in natural resources, until we meet 
 the marvelous multiplication of human effort through mechan- 
 ical invention with social ownership and democratic control 
 of the machine, and until the whole industrial order is organ- 
 ized so as to eliminate the waste of competition not in the 
 interest of a few great industrial barons, but in the interest 
 of the whole body of laborers. This is the program of Social- 
 ism in a large way, a system of social service as against a sys- 
 tem of private profit, of co-operation as against exploitation, 
 whose threefold objective is to make every man a partner with 
 every other man in the commonwealth of nature, in the com- 
 mon gain of the world's inventive genius which is fundamen- 
 tally social and not individual in its origin, and in the organi- 
 zation of industrial life, which ought to be democratic and not 
 autocratic or oligarchic in its end. 
 
 I am for Socialism because Socialism is the economic ex- 
 pression of both democracy and religion, and because as such 
 it is as inevitable as the movement of the suns. 
 
 22 
 
Schindler, Solomon. (Author.) 
 
 If Socialism means the adjustment of social conditions of 
 the past to the industrial and commercial needs of the present 
 or some future day; if its objects are the utilization of natural 
 forces, inventions and discoveries, for the benefit, not of the 
 few, but for the greatest number I am thoroughly in favor 
 of Socialism. 
 
 Or, if Socialism stands for an endeavor to improve all 
 things human, .to attack all the hostile forces that threaten 
 human well-being, such as hunger, sickness, ignorance, etc. I, 
 again, am in favor of Socialism or any "ism" that will try to 
 make this world a happy abode of human beings. 
 
 But, if Socialism should stand for upheaval by force in- 
 stead of peaceable evolution ; if it should appeal to class hatred 
 nurtured by envy; if it should endeavor to realize dreams of 
 an impossible economic equality by means of the ballot or 
 nitro-glycerine in that case I am not in favor of Socialism. 
 
 Show me your Socialism, and I will tell you whether I am 
 in favor of it or not. 
 
 Axon, Stockton. (University Professor and Writer.) 
 
 I think that all people who hold progressive opinions are 
 desirous of getting a more equitable distribution of the wealth 
 which is produced by the many, of getting such governmental 
 adjustments as will destroy favors and special privileges un- 
 der the government, of getting a government sensitive to the 
 interests of all instead of a few. I believe these things can be 
 accomplished by the free processes of democracy in the hands 
 of a thoroughly aroused and informed people, sufficiently in- 
 formed to make their own choices, and sufficiently determined 
 to hold their leaders responsible to themselves, the people. 
 
 Every progressive platform has in it something that may 
 be called Socialistic, and I am not sure just how much pro- 
 gressivism is necessary to make a Socialist. 
 
 Politically, I am a Democrat, and I was never stronger 
 than now in the faith that Democracy can be free and power- 
 ful to serve the best interests of the whole people. 
 
 23 
 

 Clare, Israel Smith. (Historian, Author of "Library of Univer- 
 sal History," 15 Vols. Address : Lancaster, Pa., R. F. D. 2.) 
 
 I am a Socialist because Socialism is right; because it is 
 industrial democracy and economic freedom; because it is in 
 accordance with the principle of human brotherhood; because 
 it is against dividing up, against breaking up the home, against 
 free lust (wrongfully called "free love," as all love is free 
 love, there being no forced love or compulsory love), against 
 killing good incentive or good personal initiative; because it 
 is against robbing the producer of four-fifths of his product; 
 because it is against poverty, misery, prostitution, vice, crime, 
 insanity, war, murder, suicide, pestilence, famine, ignorance 
 id all that is bad; because its ethics are identical with the 
 'ethics of Jesus Christ; because it would make man's existence 
 in this life a heaven upon earth; because the Socialism we 
 already have works so well, as our post-office system, our pub- 
 lic school system, our free textbook system, our public water 
 and fire departments, our public roads, our public parks, our 
 public playgrounds, our public libraries, etc. ; because it is the 
 next step in accord with economic revolution and is inevitable, 
 is destined to come in spite of all opposition, in spite of all 
 obstacles thrown in its way to obstruct or retard it, and in 
 spite of all mistakes or shortcomings of Socialists themselves; 
 in short, because Socialism is a rising sun. 
 
 I am opposed to Capitalism, because it is social and eco- 
 nomic slavery; because it is in accord with the doctrine of 
 human greed and selfishness; because it robs the workers and 
 the industrious and rewards the shirkers and the exploiters; 
 because it is for dividing up with a vengeance; because it 
 breaks up the home by low wages, unemployment and high 
 cost of living, as shown by government statistics, which tell us 
 that there are a million divorces every ten years in this coun- 
 try ; because it promotes race suicide, as the marriage rate and 
 the birth rate are decreasing, and the death rate increasing, in 
 all so-called civilized countries; because it causes panics and 
 business depressions and makes ninety-eight out of every hun- 
 dred business men fail (according to Dunn's Agency figures) ; 
 because it discourages all good incentive and encourages all 
 bad incentive; because it promotes free lust, or so-called "free 
 love;" because it causes poverty and then punishes its vic- 
 tims for being poor; because it breeds poverty, misery, crime, 
 
 24 
 
prostitution, drunkenness, insanity, political corruption, pesti- 
 lence, famine, war, murder, suicide, ignorance and all that is 
 bad ; because it is in accordance with the ethics of His Satanic 
 Majesty; because it is a setting sun, a dying system, as it is 
 destroying itself, is impregnated w r ith the seeds of its own 
 dissolution, is slowly committing suicide and digging its own 
 grave, giving up the ghost, unwept, unhonored and unsung. 
 
 O'Neill, John M. (Editor, The Miners' Magazine, Denver, Colo.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I believe that Socialism 
 in operation means the emancipation of the human race. It is 
 idle to talk about political liberty while the vast majority of 
 the people are without industrial liberty. The man who owns 
 a thousand jobs, owns a thousand lives. Such a statement may 
 sound harsh and brutal to the man whose cradle has been 
 rocked beneath the starry banner of young Columbia, and he 
 may say to me, "I am not a slave for I can quit the owner of 
 the job," but if he quits the owner of the job and he belongs 
 to the disinherited class, the wage earning class, then necessity 
 demands that he shall seek another owner of jobs, and he has 
 merely changed masters and he is still a slave. 
 
 For men to be free, they must own their jobs, and to own 
 the jobs the people must own collectively, the natural re- 
 sources of the earth, and its machinery of production and dis- 
 tribution. 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because collective ownership of 
 the earth and its machines of production and distribution will 
 open wide the gates of equal opportunity to every man, woman 
 and child who live upon the face of the earth. Socialism means 
 that the profit system shall be destroyed and that upon its 
 shattered ruins shall be built a real republic, beneath whose 
 sheltering dome, there can live no master and no slave. 
 
 James, W. E. S., M. A., B. D. (Clergyman, Ayr, Ont., Canada.) 
 
 Socialism is the scientific analysis of the present state of 
 society and the theory of social development founded thereon. 
 
 25 
 
 
A 'Socialist is one whose study of this scientific analysis has 
 convinced him that society is progressing towards a co-opera- 
 tive commonwealth. My study extends over fifteen years, 
 and 1 clearly see the gradual concentration of capital -the 
 gradual consolidation of labor interests and the life and death 
 struggle between them. As no question is ever settled until it 
 is settled right, this can have only one result the capturing 
 of the wealth of the nations by the producers of wealth and 
 the utilizing of it, not for the few, but for the whole people. 
 
 With the passing of the small privately owned shop 
 through the coming of the large manufactury, socially oper- 
 ated but privately owned, way was prepared for the larger, 
 nation-wide manufactury, socially operated and socially owned. 
 It must come. 
 
 As right has behind it all the power of omnipotence and 
 so must prevail the present system, which makes the many 
 toil in poverty while the few live on the earnings in idleness 
 and luxury, must make way for a system which will provide 
 a more equitable reward of labor. 
 
 As competition is based on man's selfishness and so is un- 
 Christian, co-operation, based on man's brotherhood, the es- 
 sence of Christianity, must supersede it. 
 
 The capitalistic system must consider profits first business 
 must pay and men second. The last hundred years has traced 
 the gradual rise of man and the next twenty-five will see him 
 freeing himself from this system of wage slavery and evolv- 
 ing another which will dethrone the dollar and will enthrone 
 the rights of man. 
 
 When the ballot was given to the masses and free educa- 
 tion to their children, the inevitable result was the rise of these 
 masses to assert their freedom and their right to all the product 
 of their labor possible only in a co-operative commonwealth. 
 
 Every great religious awakening of the past has resulted 
 from the preaching of some great neglected truth especially 
 needed in that age. The next great religious awakening will 
 come from preaching the one sadly neglected truth of this age 
 economic justice and brotherhood. It will be greater, more 
 fundamental, more stupendous in its effects than any reforma- 
 tion or revolution of the past. It is inevitable. 
 
 This coming emancipation of man dethronement cf com- 
 petition and dollar rule the new moral, social and religious 
 
 26 
 
awakening these give my life its greatest joy, its highest 
 hope, and its greatest inspiration to service. I am in favor of 
 Socialism. 
 
 Peake, Elmore Elliott. (Author.) 
 
 The word "Socialism" (aside from its partisan use) has 
 so many connotations that one can hardly say he is either for 
 it or against it without being misconstrued. With Socialism's 
 cardinal tenet, the better distribution and the better produc- 
 tion of wealth, I am heartily in sympathy, as I suppose every- 
 body is. People disagree as to the means by which this may 
 be obtained. Public ownership of wealth-producing factors 
 is evidently coming more and more into favor, as is evidenced 
 by the municipal ownership of electric, gas and water plants. 
 This principle is bound to be extended. 
 
 But it seems to me that Socialism stands with Prohibition 
 to this extent : Long before either of them has made sufficient 
 converts to put their party in power, their principles will have 
 been incorporated by other parties which do not confine them- 
 selves to these specific contentions. 
 
 Weber, Gustavus Adolphus. (Economist.) 
 
 The ideal of Socialism, as I understand it, is a condition 
 of society in which each individual will render his share of 
 service in the production and distribution of wealth, and in 
 which each will receive his proportionate share for consump- 
 tion. I do not dispute the desirability of such a condition. I 
 take issue with the Socialists in their contention that this con- 
 dition can be brought about, or that a material advance to- 
 ward such a condition can be accomplished, by legislation. 
 
 Society must advance by gradual evolution, as it has done 
 since its beginning, and I believe that this ideal condition is 
 still many generations, perhaps centuries, distant. The only 
 way to strive for its realization is for each generation to do its 
 part in promoting a spirit of temperance, co-operation, fair- 
 ness and intellectuality. Society will then gradually realize 
 
 .^27 
 
the waste, unfairness and barbarism of industrial competition, 
 of inheritance and of unequal distribution and consumption. 
 While man is thus slowly becoming civilized, he will naturally 
 devise from time to time, such laws and such forms of govern- 
 ment as will fit each stage of his development. 
 
 Strobell, George H. 
 
 I work and vote for Socialism. Every age has its special 
 problems, its special tyranny to combat, its own liberty and 
 independence to preserve, to hand down to its descendants. 
 The machine has destroyed hand labor and association in 
 labor is inevitable. The machine, too large and complex to 
 be owned by individuals, has made necessary combinations of 
 owners. Combinations of owners destroyed competition, and, 
 through resultant economy and increase of production and 
 profit, became rich and powerful corporations. These corpo- 
 rations control the means of life of over nine-tenths of the 
 people. The owners no longer are the administrators of their 
 property. They hire the necessary business abilities to run 
 the business machine, but they insistently demand higher divi- 
 dends and profits. These demands cause the virtual slavery 
 of the workers, and millions work today long hours at a speed 
 and productive capacity never before known in the world, and 
 get so little for it that they are hungry all the time, live in 
 squalor and dress poorly. More and better machinery being 
 constantly invented, turns loose on the labor market a host of 
 unemployed to compete with their fellow workers for work. 
 We are not the freeman our fathers were. 
 
 Fortunes so vast as to stagger the imagination for a few ; 
 dire, ever-increasing poverty for the masses is now and will 
 be increasingly the result of this development unless 
 
 Unless we look at it in the sane way, as a development 
 toward a new order, where the people will, in their collective 
 capacity, own and operate and democratically manage all in- 
 dustry. That will be Socialism. There is no other way of 
 escape in sight. Socialism is not, however, inevitably the out- 
 come. There must be conscious action by the people to turn 
 this evolution away from its present tendency. To continue 
 
 28 
 
as we are is to invite the destruction ot our civilization. There- 
 fore I work and vote for Socialism. It is a step forward in the 
 progress of the race and a promise of the fulfillment of the 
 prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven." 
 
 Kalley, Ella Hartwig. (Lecturer.) 
 
 I have long felt the need of a more humane form of gov- 
 ernment, a system of justice regulating international commer- 
 cial 'relations, insuring peace and education for the older as 
 well as the younger persons. 
 
 Our country should be a republic, industrially as well as 
 politically, and liberate the wage slave by the abolition of the 
 capitalist. 
 
 As a writer, I shall continue to defend the interests of the 
 masses instead of the classes, and as a Temperance Suffragette 
 Socialist lecturer, I shall endeavor to inspire my audiences 
 above the misty horizon of all other political parties to the star 
 line of true reform, which is "the hoe of promise" and basis 
 of a nation's greatness. 
 
 I am not alone in the thought that a temperance plank 
 added to the Socialist Platform \vould cause the greatest ma- 
 jority to leave other parties, as Socialism would be more at- 
 tractive than ever, to the very finest and best representatives 
 of society everywhere, while justice would flower and bloom 
 and the Dove of Peace perch upon our banners. It would be 
 a lame platform for any political party to overlook the cry- 
 ing need of reform on all lines and to enforce the boasted pure 
 food law, and at the same time to tolerate and uphold distil- 
 leries, saloons and breweries, is to herald the weakness and 
 sandy foundation of the parties, old or new. As comrades 
 and co-workers in behalf the downtrodden, let loyal men and 
 women unite and lead in the vanguard of Christian political 
 victory. 
 
 Levermore, Charles Herbert. (Educator and Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I believe in the com- 
 mon ownership of land and water and of instruments of pro- 
 
 29 
 
duction and distribution, and because I believe that the high- 
 est ideals of social and moral perfection would lead us all to- 
 labor for the welfare of the community rather than of any 
 individual. 
 
 But I am not convinced that any party now called Social- 
 ist, or any group of avowedly Socialist leaders has as yet 
 shown a safe and practicable plan for the realization of those 
 ideals. 
 
 Kinney, Abbot. (Author, Venice, Cal.) 
 
 We are all Socialists. Man is a social animal. It is con- 
 sequently impossible that any government of man should be 
 anything but a Socialism. 
 
 The people have lost sight of the fact that all property in 
 a State belongs to the State. The exercise by every State of 
 the right of eminent domain is an illustration of this. Modern 
 governments customarily pay the private user or holder of 
 property, when the property is taken for public use. This is 
 always the rule when property is taken by corporations, or 
 persons under a delegation to them of the right of eminent 
 domain. It is only properly so delegated for public utilities in 
 private hands. 
 
 Public payment for property so taken is a matter of con- 
 vention and convenience. It is deemed fair that property taken 
 from one member of the society for the benefit of all, should 
 be paid for by all. Or, if such property is taken by a common 
 carrier, for instance, that such common carrier should pay for 
 it. In case of public stress, however, as in the blowing up of a 
 row of houses to stop the course of a fire, or in the seizure of 
 food or quarters for the use of military in national defense, or 
 in the clearing away of houses or property for defensive pur- 
 poses, payment may or may not be made as the conditions indi- 
 cate. 
 
 More than this, every human life in a society belongs to 
 the State. Thus the State may draft its citizens to fight fire, 
 suppress disorder, or take part in the military defense of the 
 society or State. The State also imprisons and even executes 
 its members who attack the general welfare. 
 
 30 
 
Cazalet, Edward Alexander. (President of the Anglo-Russian 
 Literary Society, Imperial Institute, London.) 
 
 The ideals of Socialism might be realized by the precepts 
 ofChristianity^ "love your neighbor^as yourself." Difficult 
 social questions which cannot be solved by the head are some- 
 times settled by the heart, for it appeals to the conscience, 
 diminishing selfishness and making all classes friends. Chris- 
 tian Socialism, by encouraging mutual concessions, might per- 
 haps attain better results than agitation and violence. 
 
 Allen, Fred Hovey. (Clergyman and Author.) 
 
 I believe in a Socialism which levels upward, which makes 
 a man what he was not, only a higher, nobler, richer being. I 
 believe that next to being God, the greatest thing is to be a 
 man. The more Godlike he becomes, the more man will reflect 
 the true and only permanent Socialism. 
 
 I am in favor of such Socialism as will attach the chain of 
 brotherhood to the lowest, if that lowest is capable of rising 
 into true manhood, because truth, honesty, love and kindness 
 mean the Kingdom of Heaven begun on earth, and equal rights 
 to all the children of God. 
 
 Helms, E. J. (Clergyman.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism insofar as it is the practical ap- 
 plication of Christianity to our economic and industrial life. 
 
 Conger-Kaneko, Josephine. (Editor, The Progressive Women.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because it seems to be the next 
 step in social evolution, carrying the human race toward a 
 more perfect civilization. 
 
 31 
 
Hitchcock, Charles C. (Merchant and Author.) 
 
 We are fast coming to realize that co-operation in the use 
 of our economic resources is the only form of society worthy 
 of civilized people. 
 
 A co-operative commonwealth demands that the able- 
 bodied individual shall not be allowed to consume more wealth 
 as measured in labor power, than he creates. Is not this so 
 evidently reasonable that the system should command the ap- 
 proval of every fair mind? It doubtless would do so were we 
 not born into and environed by the capitalist order, thereby 
 being naturally prejudiced against an innovation so radically 
 different as is Socialism. 
 
 Perhaps no more comprehensive definition of Socialism 
 can be given than that by_W>jtpr iM-mrr^ Mi] 1g ; wViipVi i s: 
 
 "First. The collective ownership of the means of pro- 
 ducing the means of life." 
 
 "Second. The democratic management by the workers of 
 the collectively owned means of producing the means of life." 
 
 Third. Equal opportunities for all men and women to the 
 use and benefits of these collectively owned and democrati- 
 cally managed means of producing the means of life." 
 
 Under the present order of society the means of produc- 
 ing the means of life are privately owned and controlled ; the 
 owners thereby forming a privileged class and are enabled 
 to dictate the terms on which the means of life land and 
 the machinery of production can be used. 
 /" As a result of this private ownership labor receives but 
 va portion of the product, the larger part of wealth produced 
 either wasted in the strife of competition or retained by 
 the capitalist in the form of interest, rent and profit. 
 
 The wealth we command merely through the ownership 
 of stocks and bonds so-called income producing capital is 
 wealth received which we do nothing to produce ; hence this 
 wealth must, of necessity, be produced by others who are de- 
 prived of a portion of their product. This wealth thus appro- 
 priated is wealth derived from profit in the employment of 
 labor (surplus value)./ A thorough study of economics shows 
 clearly that interest, rent, and profit result in exploitation of 
 labor the robbery of labor. It is this profit system which is 
 strangling our civilization. Poverty and the greater portion 
 of crime can be traced directly to this exploitive system:/ 
 
 32 
 
The aim of the Socialist movement is the dethronement 
 of capital and the capitalistic class by merging all humanity 
 into one class, a producing class. 
 
 The exploited majority, the poverty stricken, the sub- 
 merged, as now under capitalism, will under a Socialistic Re- 
 public come into their inheritance equality of opportunity to 
 the resources of wealth and production and be enabled to 
 retain the wealth they produce. 
 
 The capitalist class, in any fair view of the situation, while 
 being obliged to surrender the privileges now retained through 
 the private ownership of "the means of producing the means 
 of life," will under a Social Republic receive indirect benefit 
 which we claim will out-weigh any advantage they may now 
 seem to possess. 
 
 Human nature does not stand in the way of the realiza- 
 tion^f^^cuQzflfLerative commonwealth. It is natural that man- 
 "THnd not only seek but demand that to which they are in 
 equity entitled. Under capitalism the majority are exploited 
 out of a good share of their product. As the producer awak- 
 ens to an understanding of the present situation, it is this nor- 
 mal and justifiable self-interest selfishness which will prove 
 to be a strong, if not the leading, factor in bringing about So- 
 cialism. 
 
 The unseemly antagonism and strifes so manifest today 
 under capitalism are largely traceable directly to our conflict- 
 ing economic interests occasioned by the private ownership 
 of the means of life. 
 
 A study of social evolution leads clearly in the direction 
 of Socialism. But it is when we carefully consider the eco- 
 nomic situation that we* become aware of the fallacy of the 
 capitalist system and realize that the wealth producing major- 
 ity will in time inevitably demand, as a matter of justice, the 
 co-operative commonwealth ; that is, will insist that the wealth 
 producer receive the wealth he produces that the capitalist, 
 who as capitalist receives usury thereby commanding, without 
 labor, wealth produced by others, must cease to be a parasite 
 on labor. 
 
 This changed order, this revolution, can be brought about 
 only through socialization of the means of production and of 
 distribution. 
 
 33 
 
Not very long ago the advocate of Socialism was the voice 
 "crying in the wilderness." To-day he bears "good tidings 
 of great joy" to a rapidly assembling multitude. 
 
 Noll, Aaron. (Clergyman.) 
 
 I have been a member of the Socialist Party since the 
 year 1900. I have, also, for twenty-five years, been a Chris- 
 tian minister, serving pastorates, in regular connection with 
 an orthodox denomination the Reformed Church in the United 
 States. I am increasingly persuaded of the righteousness of 
 the Socialist Movement. To me it seems that Socialism will 
 make possible, in a practical way, the social ideals of the found- 
 er of the Christian Religion. The Church, at any period of its 
 history, may, or it may not, truthfully, stand for the practical* 
 application of those ideals. But the Socialist Movement, at 
 all times, the world over, stands for social and industrial jus- 
 tice. Jesus implanted in the consciousness of man the worth 
 of the individual life. Socialism will make possible the true 
 development of the individual unto a complete life. Social- 
 ism will throw around every individual a wall of protection 
 against the rapacity of the strong, greedy, selfish individual, 
 and it will put into the hands of every one the means of life 
 whereby he may rise to the full stature of his being, there be- 
 ing none to hinder or oppress him. The concern of each will 
 be the concern of all. But it will be a concern founded on jus- 
 tice, love and peace. Socialism, being scientifically correct, 
 holds out to all men a vision of future good that inspires a 
 hope that makes life seem worth while. 
 
 Russell, Charles Edward. (Journalist and Author.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because Socialism would put 
 an end to the monstrous system of injustice by which men toil 
 to create wealth and then are deprived of the wealth that they 
 create. All wealth is created by labor and should belong to 
 the men and women whose labor creates it. 
 
 34 
 
Socialism would abolish poverty,, put an end to child labor, 
 make education the universal possession, abolish prostitution 
 and make the earth fit for the inhabitation of its children. It 
 would obliterate the slum, the breeder of nine-tenths of the 
 evils that now afflict society. It would mean industrial as 
 well as political democracy. I believe in democracy. There- 
 fore, I believe in Socialism, which is perfected and applied 
 democracy. 
 
 James, George Wharton. (Explorer, Ethnologist and Author.) 
 
 As I now stand I can scarcely be said either to favor or 
 oppose Socialism. The term must first be clearly defined. I 
 believe in fellowship, in municipal ownership of all public or 
 semi-public utilities; the establishment of free municipal mar- 
 kets for vegetables, etc. ; the purchase by the city authorities 
 of fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat, coal, etc., when dealers seek 
 to force up the prices, and their disposal at cost to users. I 
 would take back from all corporations, or else compel them to 
 pay to the people an annual rent for the same, all water rights, 
 power rights, etc., that they have filed upon and held by the 
 right of might; I would make all great coal mining, oil min- 
 ing and other reapers of crops for which they did not sow, pay 
 a certain percentage of their returns into the public treasury ; 
 I would compel the abolition of all slums, even to the extent 
 of compelling the municipalities to provide decent shelter for 
 the poor at reasonable rates; I would parole all well-behaved 
 prisoners (as a rule) at the end of a year and give them a 
 chance to make good; I in every way would seek to educate 
 the people as a whole to the rights, responsibilities and privi- 
 leges of government, and then give them, what is theirs inhe- 
 rently, a full power to determine how and by whom they shall 
 be governed. 
 
 These, hastily and crudely expressed, are some of my 
 ideas on this important question. 
 
 35 
 
Koeb, Otto, B. S. (Stanford University, Cal.) 
 
 I believe in universal world-peace between all nations. 
 Since the Socialists are the only political party honestly in- 
 dorsing world-peace, I sympathize with them. 
 
 I am in favor of an universal eight-hour working day, six 
 days per week; abolition of child labor; creation of old age 
 pensions for disabled working men. A certain minimum wage 
 rate, which makes it possible for every normally developed 
 laborer to Support a family. Up to the above mentioned points 
 I am in favor of Socialism. 
 
 Cooke, George Willis. (Author and Lecturer.) 
 
 I am in favor of Socialism because I believe in equal oppor- 
 tunities for all children born into the world, and that each 
 should be able to use all his natural gifts according to his abil- 
 ity. 
 
 I believe in Socialism because I detest all forms of monop- 
 oly and exclusiveness, not being able to see why the minority 
 should possess property and the majority should be deprived 
 of its advantages. If it is good for any, it is good for all. 
 
 I am a Socialist because it is quite apparent that the great 
 fundamental sources of the necessities of life, 011 which all 
 alike are dependent, are social and public in their nature, and 
 should be open to all. They should belong to the nation, acces- 
 sible on the same terms to all who need them, without giving 
 monopolistic advantage to any. 
 
 I am a Socialist because I cannot understand why one man 
 should be subject to another as slave, serf or wage-earner. No 
 man is good enough, said Lincoln, to have the control of an- 
 other man's life. 
 
 I am a Socialist because I believe in the equality of men 
 and women, that the domination of women by men has been 
 vastly injurious to the race, and that the ballot will give women 
 a better opportunity to live a noble and healthy life as woman, 
 wife and mother. 
 
 I am a Socialist because I believe in freedom, individual- 
 ity and initiative for every man and woman, and that these 
 can be secured for all men and women, according to the meas- 
 ure of their individual capacity, only by that co-operative 
 method offered by Socialism. 
 
 36 
 
HERE AND THERE, 
 
 Here is a mother kneeling by a cradle, who vainly 
 endeavors with smacks and kindly words to appease 
 her hungry babies. 
 
 There is a father, dusty and fatigued, vainly 
 begging for work. 
 
 Here is a magnificent edifice which is called a 
 museum. It shelters dead mummies and statues of 
 marble. 
 
 There on a park bench sits a homeless living hu- 
 man being, who, shivering with cold, stares at the pale 
 moon and wonders why his tears are subject to 
 gravitation. 
 
 EDWARD SILVIN. 
 

 
 DEC 6 1932 
 
 APR 11 1933 
 
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