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MODERN SOCIALISM Page Tsrc©

Its Rise and Promise

BETTER distribution and better production of wealth, these are the in­

dex words of modern Socialism. [Their order of sequence, which may sunn paradoxical, for the production of economic goods must naturally precede their con­sumption, is rightly indicative of the relative importance of these iactors in the Socialist program. Since the dawn of the great in­dustrial era in the world, which' came with the multiplied inven­tions earlv in the nineteenth ce»t-' tury.•production has gone stead** i'y forward, until the mass of usable manufactured goods and natural supplies has so-multiplied. that Under normal conditions there are large surpluses avail­able for all mankind. The social conditions of production have .oil the whole also progressed. If Is the equitable distribution of this greatly increased product o f labor which has trot kept pace with the improved methods of production, and which makes the*problem Of distribution the chief c**K'ern of Socialism

The root ol modern Socialism lies deeply imbedded in the economics of modern society ft is traced back to that great in­dustrial revolution which cam* quietly over the world at the end of the eighteenth century When, with the overthrow of feudahshl in tile middle ages, a new class, the fctirgeoisie. came to supplant, the dominant aristocratic class, it meant essentially that a society based on industrial achievement and competition was to replace a societv based on blood distinction and the inheritance of land. The new social order flourished, and through its activity of hand and brain has blossomed forth a rich­ness of industrial production be­side which the spendor* of the ancient days seem paltry. The organization of labor, coopera­tion, and the use of inventions these have progressed steadily. They are the forces that have produced all the marvel* of mod­ern industry, until in pure ad­miration of the machinery and •he ultimate product the view­point of society in general, and particularly of the upper classes, has become diverted from the preciousness of those producing beautiful and useful things to the vaftie of the things themselves. >V\Vhave learned to value things as highly as or more highly than

" persons. This aspect is reflected in our multitudinous laws about the safeguarding of property. Socialism aims essentially at up­holding the sacredness of the in­dividual, rather than the in­violability of private property, •nd at a state of society in which, as Engels has pointed out, an ad­ministration of things will result iii greater freedom for* persons."

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RUTHLESS C O M P E T I ­T I O N in business and a ktisstM* faire theory in production, these are the evils of t he industrial system against which Socialism stands embattled, No one has perhaps more clearly and dra­matically summed up the social situation created by the indus* trial revolution than Karl Marx, the -father' of modern Socialism1, in his ''Communist Manifesto.."* which he first brought out, t-> Itether with Engels, in 18.48. 'In hh .declaration of the rights of the _ working man, Marx "has set Ion It how the problems of mod* em. labor were created and be-

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By ANNA L VON DER O S l EN.

IMIIHIIII

came acute. In all the history of the world men have worked, and they will always continue HI work, for certain task-;, must be performed if the human race ii to survive. It is not the fact of manual later itself that has ere* ated the new problem, nor its ac­companying poverty-—for the poor we have always had with us; Men labored lone and for small wages in the middle ages, but there was associated in̂ the mind of the craftsman an indi­viduality in hi* work and a dc* gree of contentment with his en­vironment which are lacking in the age of machinery. The ma­chine is the real cause of social ttnrest arnoner the laboring classes, ft made forced associa­tion in factories under a boss, instead of unsuherrtsed work in the home, a necessity of life for the noor ft drove men from the heaMifnl environment of rural *d'«tr»cts into the crowded city. w:th itis unhvpicnic tenements. It disturbed the home I'f'* °* the family, and m*de emojovment fitful and uncertain, T* mad- a man a mere *orA a te'^W of a machine. w»th the snvdl rem«i-oense {riven to a machine. wHIe the owner of the tools w*+h wlvch* the laborer mist work grew enormou«1v wealthy—not com­fortably rich, as the rmftsmart sKontceener of tf»e middle ?<res, but possessed of. »"ore nwnM th*n be cou'd nocctHlv nce f*>r ftimheff or his family. Out of a

contrast so fl; em Socialism

Economic 1 is the fun cause of Soc sole cause, it must be m> impulse, tha changes whi social cons* world in the great politic sign posts on ism. When mental politi fected in tl France and with its exc1

the ruling n end, the tore lighted, not people, but Europe. Ft the history rights of tli* society and Accorded go\ tion. The m< racy spread I tria, Germa French arm enforced its reconstructs I Si 5 ideals patriotism o new impeti nationalism, turn was clo ing for d.*n shoot, Socia grew apace and SociaJis

*rant we get mod* •

(equality of wealth amental material dism, but not the Concomitant with ntioned a spiritual

created by the h came over the iousness of the la>$ of 1789.* The 1 revolutions are the road to Social-in 1789 a funda-al change was ef-e government of he ancient regime, isive privileges of •bility, came to an 1 of democracy was nlv for the French* for the whole of r the first time in of the.world, the

middle classes of he peasantrv were ernmental r#cogni-vement for denioc-) Italv. Spain, Aus-ay—wherever the es proclaimed and doctrines. In the n period following »f newly awakene3 >erated to create a *, a-- feeling for and this feeling in elv allied to a feel-Kracy and it* oflf-ism. with which it

Both democracy n had this in coo-

IT IS TIME I HAD A NEW SUIT «

* /or Flie Cefl HqfKMa kt / . / Hmt

mon, that they were opposed *> the ideas of exclusion harbored by the other class of society, the nobility. The feeling for Social­

i s m at that time was not clearlr defined, and it required another evele pf revolution in Europe, that of 1848, felt most profound­ly in France and Germany, to bring Socialism to the fore as a social force.

T H E PRESENT TIME, with its great impetus toward the realisation of political democ-

, racy throughout the world, marks another significant chap­ter in the history of Socialism. Now. as never before, there it every where growing a feeling also for economic democracy— and a belief that it is inevitably bound to political democracy in achieving the real freedom of the world and the fullest measure of happiness compatible with life for the greatest number.

Modern science has contrib­uted toward Socialism in its em­phasis on processes of evolu­tion. -The focus of man's atten­tion has been diverted from the past or a golden age. and from the "other worldKness" of the medieval pietism to the reality of the world we live in and the present day. Society, too, has "evolved"; it has come of age, as Melvin points out, and is now ready to enter upon a rational plan for the working out of the full meaning of democracy. Socialism means a rationaliza­tion of the economic industries of society.

In his book, "Socialism as die Sociological Ideal" (1915), Melvin clearly points out the directions. Present day .Social­ism has absorbed some of the experimental, scientific methods of proce<kire. It does not at­tempt the huge task so long pursued by Christianity, that of making the individual over, but limits its efforts to a possible attainment, an improvement of the social conditions that sur­round maakind. Socialism does not mean anarchism or the ab­sence of government; nor Chris­tian communism, nor a holding of all things in common; nor syndicalism and the ownership of capital by separate industries with power for direct action through the strike. Socialism it willing to depend upon the vote of the majority for its sanction. It does not posit the theory that man himself is perfect and angelic by nature, but, rather, recognizing the weaknesses of human nature, upholds a strict­ly democratic program which. aims at greater equality of op­portunity for all. This it en-, deavort to do in a steadfast im­pulsion toward having the state placed in control of the indus­tries and natural resources; in other words, of the capital of the world. Under such a plan* wages from the state would be the only source of income for all, and there would be no idle class of able-bodied . citizens. The regard for justice, that it the spiritual force of civiliza­tion which is driving modern Socialism; added to this is an increase of sociological knowl­edge of how to do: the hit and chance method has been abol-t ished. and for it we have substi4' tuted a definite, scientific; method of systemized human endeavor*. The esthetic instinct:

Mas also contributed. Povertytj is not beautiful, and the artisfc.

(Continued en fxige 6.) -

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Page Four THE CALL MAGAZIN1

.' T H E G R E A T P A R A D O X

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THE greater, puzzle in creation is, of"" course, creation itself. The

moment we attempt to probe into tiie mystery in which we are involved, we find ourselves fly­ing on the weak and uncertain wings of speculation, and soon after rising from the solid earth we plunge into an inpeuetrable darkness, where, feeling about and groping helplessly, we make a few hesitating turns and, baffled, come hastening back to mother earth. He who stays long enough in the upper dark becomes either a philosopher or a lunatic (or both), and, of the two, the philosopher funda­mentally knows no more than the lunatic, perhaps less.

One conclusion, however, the troubled, seeking mind will reach, and that conclusion only, makes the mind more troubled, makes the soul more discontent­ed, wraps the scheme of things in thicker darkness, leaves us

By THOMAS MUFSON.

rs away its conscious mo­ments, happy in the deceptive ignorance. It tastes the feeling* of eternal life. An end to its existence does not strike its mind, for it lives but in the moment, not knowing death, particularly as related to its own individuality. But the universal fact of death in time confronts it and life's first illusion bursts.

"Hien nature, the great magi­cian, the great deceiver, to dis­tract the mind from the melan­choly contemplation of inevit­able death, to counteract the havoc of the first illusion shat­

tered, makes to g away horizon of i teriag mirage, ure, knowledge, temptingly, and 1 death, rush on to gling 'prizes of e: when grasped, oh iilusionment, the cluttering the mo of promise, mini ment.

As life is a c« the individual is dox.. He weeps laughs in mad ag for the forbiddei

>w, on the far-ach life, a gBt-*VeaIth, plea*" fame, beckon en, forgetting rasp the dan-

istence, which, the bitter dis-

lust and ashes sth—maximum mm of fnlfill-

titradiction, so he great para-for joy and

my. He longs fruit and ig-

D I A M O N D S t , _ t . J m.A T5,. A V T T P P T M

sores the prizes free at hand. A soft answer will turn away has wrath, coercion will but spa ' him on to mutiny; A temper fierce and raging means a nature soft and kindly. His extreme virtue becomes vice, his extreme joy pain, and his pain mounts to ecstasy. He is, in his one per­sonality, potentially, the wisest and the most stupid, the kindest and the crudest, the basest and the most sublime of creatures.

* * *

INEVITABLE DEATH is the most dreaded fact of life, and yet the individual is most in­different to it. To every morta!, death draws nearer with every, day that passes; when at hand, dread and panic fill the soul, and yet men go about their life's ac­tivities giving death no shadow of a thought.

'The individual loves life most intensely. Self-preservation i the first law of his nature. He­witt cling to life with ferocious

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