Leading Men and Women (continued 2)

The example of the Federal office-holders in the great majority in voting and using their influence to protect their individual positions, without regard to the larger interest of the public, is such as to make all patriotic citizens acquainted with the facts wish and desire that their numbers be not increased to any such extent as would be the case in the community ownership of industry and business. The history of American large cities, shows for the most part, that these urban governments are controlled and administered by one set of selfish political leaders after another, whose power is predicated upon party machinery, held together mainly by party patronage, favoritism and public graft. And thus to put industry and business under the administration of the government is to more than multiply the dangers to the public of those industrial and political leaders, who have made representative government in the United States little more than a mere form.

Economic Socialism would not only place too large a machine at the disposal of political leaders to be used against the people, but it would stifle initiation and tend too much to hold society in a static condition. Under individual ownership of industry and business, under the laws of legitimate competition, initiation is encouraged by offering increasing rewards to those who adopt new methods and invent new things to advance human welfare by lightening the burdens of life and labor. The spirit of rivalry and competition maintains a constant and steady demand for the best that can be produced for the people in all lines of industry and business, which is among the strongest incentives to new thought and invention. Man is naturally a conservative being and without some stimulant will be content with conditions as they came down to him from the past. It is true that in spite of economic incentives there will appear now and then an individual who is inspired by higher motives for the advancement of the race, but the great masses of the people still require the power and pleasure of possession, individual ownership, and the more material rewards of industry and business. And so it appears to me that Socialism would tend to bring society to a stagnant condition, arrest human progress most seriously, and discourage in the future those human benefactors, who, in the past have blazed the way for the marvelous development and advancement of modern society.

Finally, after waiving many other objections to Socialism, it might be well to observe that in the present state of society, if we were to inaugurate the industrial Socialistic regime, we would have still with us all the great social problems to be solved, perhaps in different form, with some additional ones with entirely new features and surrounded with new conditions. To my mind the different social problems constitute the problem of civilization and through the coming ages must be worked out together. All devices and schemes which do not include the individual development and social progress at large are so much wasted efforts that might be better spent. The final and ultimate solution of all human problems is necessarily educational and will have the best results if society is permitted to evolve in its natural and normal way. All the uplifting forces of society must be utilized to develop the social wants and economic demands of the masses, through increased social and industrial opportunities. The people must be brought into contact with an increasing variety of economic and social phenomena, carrying with the process an ever growing demand for the consumption of the best there is in life and mind. And until the perfection of human nature, every age will have its problems and its vices, in spite of what we think and do.

Allen, John Robert. (University Professor, Minister and Author.)

I am opposed to Socialism because I believe it will have an injurious effect upon the development of individual power and character; since it will withdraw the stimulus to achievement by destroying its rewards, and since it will weaken the attractiveness of virtue by trying to destroy the pains that follow vice. I do not believe that Socialism will develop great individuals like the present conditions even, unjust as many things now are.

I am opposed to Socialism on the other hand because I believe it will be deleterious to society as a whole, because it will eliminate the entrepreneur at the top, and I can conceive of no way whereby at the bottom of the social ladder it can have the disgusting and unpleasant work done, which, however, must be done for the well-being of the race.

I am for "applied Christianity," which in common with Socialism denies the right to use property merely for personal aggrandizement and pleasure.

Giering, Eugene T. (Editor, The Wilkesbarre, Pa., Record.)

I am opposed to Socialism because I believe the discontent which it represents can be very appreciably lessened, if not altogether removed, by other means that have not yet been given sufficient trial. Socialism appears to be striving after something unattainable under such a form of government as we deem to be the safest and best. It cannot be made to work out satisfactorily until human nature has changed, and we are not yet near the millennium. Theoretically it is appealing. Practically it is hampered by limitations that suggest economic destruction, both of that which is good and of that which is bad. We are now in the midst of an evolution. The higher moral standards now in the process of establishment should suffice.

"Why I Am in Favor of Socialism" is a publication similar to this, and the price is also the same: paper, fifty cents; cloth, seventy-five cents. It will be sent to any address on receipt of the above mentioned price. Address: Edward Silvin, Sacramento, California.

Typographical errors corrected in text:

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