John Richard Meader

“ Would it be fair if a man working four hours in making cigars were to exchange the product of his labor for the gold or the diamonds that it had taken some other man four hours to extract from the earth? And is there no difference in the value of a silk dress and a cotton dress, if both kinds of cloth take the same time and skill in the making? Would it be fair to figure the value of any article on the amount of labor-time expended in producing it? ”

“ If all are to get the same reward, whether idle or industrious, whether valuable or valueless to the community, it necessarily follows that some portion of the proceeds of the industrious workers’ labor must go to the worker whose labor has been profitless.
Discouraging as such a system of payment would be to industry and initiative, it still is, as a matter of fact, the only system that Socialism can adopt if it is to show any regard for the preservation of the collective character of the State.
If all workers are paid alike, it is possible that a certain degree of equality may be maintained. ”

“ Socialists also tell us that freedom is the choicest jewel in our possession; that freedom of press, speech and assemblage are rights which are inherent in human nature and which must be defended, with our lives if need be. But what do we find under Socialism? Could there be any freedom of press when the Socialist State owned every press, when the Socialist State employed every printer, when the Socialist State controlled every sheet of white paper? ”

“ Is it impossible, as he insists, that these wrongs may be righted except by the overthrow of our present system and the substitution of collective ownership of all means of production for our privately-owned competitive method of managing things?
When the Socialist tells us that Individualism is responsible for all these evils, he is right. When he tells us that these evils are inherent in the system which permits individual ownership of productive properties, he is wrong. It is not the competitive system that is responsible for all our social and industrial abuses. ”

“ There is one thing, John, that you can depend upon; and that is that the Socialist scheme makes absolutely no provision for freedom. The Socialists talk as if we were “wage slaves,” but no conditions existing to-day—not excepting the worst—represent such galling servitude as would exist under the despotic bureaucracy that Socialism would develop. It is true that you might be guaranteed against unemployment so long as you were willing to take the kind of work provided for you. ”

“ History teaches us that at all times new ideas were realized, as a rule, by a violent conflict with the defenders of the past, and that the combatants for new ideas struck blows as deadly as possible at the defenders of antiquity. Not without reason does Karl Marx in his work on ‘Capital’ exclaim:
“‘Violence is the midwife that waits on every ancient society that is to give birth to a new one; violence is itself a social factor.’”
Dietzgen, too, advocates nothing short of revolution, and sees no reason why violence should be condemned under such conditions. ”

“ This is what Socialists mean when they talk about The Revolution. This is the method by which they hope to attain their goal, the Co-operative Commonwealth, in which, if the plan of Socialism does not miscarry, there will be but one class—the working class—and all human beings will actually love one another so much that they will dwell together in peace and harmony ever after. ”

“ The worker does not get an adequate share of the wealth which he contributes to produce. The problem of unemployment cries for solution from one end of the world to the other. In every State and country the evils of child labor demand a remedy. Everywhere numbers of men and women work under conditions that are a disgrace to our boasted civilization, and in all parts of the land workers are compelled to live in an environment and under circumstances that absolutely preclude the attainment of the ideals toward which humanity is supposed to be tending. ”

“ One of the greatest weaknesses in the Socialist position is due to the fact that it persists in looking at life from the wrong perspective. Instead of finding the right point of view, it examines life’s canvas from so close a range that it loses all sense of proportion. Assuming this attitude toward current events, the abuses apparent are magnified to such a degree as to make it appear that Marx was correct in asserting that the capitalist system is rotten to the core, and that the only hope for relief lies in collective ownership. ”

“ All that it is necessary to do, John, is to collect the different pieces of the Socialist program and fit them together, just as you did the jig-saw puzzles with which you used to amuse yourself when a boy.
For example, let us take still another phase of the Socialist promise to see that every man shall get the full product of his labor.
The Socialists have been quick to realize that this fallacy is the best vote-catching device that they have yet invented. ”

“ Simply that under Socialism he will still be a wage earner. He may receive labor checks instead of United States currency—or something equivalent in value—but, if such a system were to be carried out, he could have no more freedom than he enjoys to-day and from every indication it is not impossible that he might have considerably less. A man is no less a wage slave because he works for 90,000,000 and himself, than he is when he is employed by a single individual. This is a fact that Socialism overlooks. ”

“ While I think I have shown you that Socialism is not what it pretends to be—a certain remedy for all the social evils of our day—and that it is utterly impossible for Socialism to keep its promises by making this world over into a veritable kingdom of God on earth, we must not make the mistake of dismissing all the contentions of the Socialists as so many exhibitions of mental aberration. ”

“ It is because we believe that it is our unregulated competition, and not the principle of individual ownership itself, which is destructive of right and justice, that we do not and cannot join hands with the Socialists. As we shall see, it is possible to bring about a correction of the abuses from which countless thousands have suffered and are still suffering. As we shall see, there are instruments within our reach with which we may check the unbounded lust of greed which has made this generous earth a vale of woe and mourning for the poor. ”

“ Socialists like to talk about abolishing class distinction. They know that this is one of the most attractive proposals that they can dangle before the envious and the ignorant. Yet what have we here but the establishment of two distinct classes—the directing or “bossing” class, and the obeying or working class? That Socialism would institute changes, there can be no doubt, but it would be a change in bosses, not a change in methods. ”

“ Do you see what Marx is driving at—that, when you are helping your employer to pay his rent, the interest on the money he has borrowed that he might keep you at work, the dividends to his stockholders, or the profit to himself, you are helping him to rob you—actually contributing to the robbery of yourself? ”

“ The Socialist agitator must know, if he has even ordinary common sense, that the worker is not entitled to the whole product of labor—that it is not labor that finally fixes the value of a commodity. Yet, basing his arguments upon this self-evident fallacy, he calls upon the workers to unite and overthrow the present industrial system that they may take back from their employers the capital “of which they have been robbed.” ”

“ In other words, they stand for the principle that might makes right, and as you know, John, might doesn’t do anything of the kind. In taking this position, Socialism proposes to violate natural right. A majority might do this; a majority might compel a minority to relinquish the rights that are inherent in natural law; but Socialism has no more right to do this thing than it has to re-establish slavery. Natural right does not depend upon a vote of a majority, but is grounded on primary law, and is eternal, no matter what majorities may say to the contrary. ”

“ In fact, so far are we from seeking to abolish the wage system, so understood, that we wish to bring under it all those who now escape from it—the employers, and those who live on rent or interest—and so make it universal. If a man wants freedom to work or not to work just as he likes, he had better emigrate to Robinson Crusoe’s island, or else become a millionaire. ”

“ Socialists to-day try to deny that Marx intended to imply that the term “labor” means “average manual labor.” They will tell you, if you question them closely, that the term “labor” includes industrial effort of every kind—mental as well as physical labor. This is a worse absurdity than to say [Pg 31] that manual labor is the source of all value. If we are to admit that “labor” includes every kind of effort, the assertion that all wealth should go to the laborers who produced it simply means that all wealth ought to go to the human race. ”

“ Suppose that Socialism were adopted to-morrow, and that you, knowing that your livelihood was assured, were working side by side with a man who was producing about half as much as you. Would the fact that his sloth and incapacity did not count against him inspire you to do your best work, especially when you realized that the surplus product of your toil was fated to compensate him for his failure to “make good”? ”

“ If the labor checks that each worker receives are to be of real value, they must be exchangeable for articles which the worker himself needs or thinks he needs. In other words, our Socialist officials are also to be called upon to ascertain what the public may be expected to demand. This does not mean merely the articles that are necessary to life—food, clothing, fuel, etc.—but everything that must be placed at the disposal of a man if he is to enjoy unrestricted freedom of choice as to the character of the articles which he purchases. ”

“ You know, John, that the efficient worker is the man who has mastered a trade thoroughly, and you also know that the maintenance of his efficiency depends upon his constant attention to the ever-changing details of his particular trade. This means the application of a lifetime, yet Socialists tell us that, merely by the adoption of the collective system, all men will become so perfectly proficient in everything that they will be fitted to undertake every kind of work. ”

“ The soap-box orator may know what Socialism really is, and what it proposes to accomplish, and he may not. I have known soap-box orators who knew so little about Socialism as to contend that it was nothing more than a political movement which proposed to institute some much-needed reforms along purely economic lines. And, there are other soap-box orators who, while fully qualified to tell you all about Socialism, wouldn’t dream of doing it for fear of frightening you. ”

“ Legal morality and the morality for which Christianity has always stood are as opposed as the two poles in many particulars. Where the principles of true morality are recognized, there is no inherent antagonism between capital and labor. They have interests that are mutual, and there is no excuse for turning the industrial world into a battleground upon which strength and cunning usurp the place of love and justice. The moment that the higher ideals of life are subordinated to the passion of greed, the degradation of the weaker and less cunning becomes inevitable. ”

“ Picture to yourself what kind of a community we should have if each individual was compelled to submit himself by a changing-off system to the most disagreeable avocations that you can imagine. Can you say that “freedom” could exist under such a régime? Do you think that such a system is possible outside of the penitentiary?
Of still greater absurdity is Bebel’s promise (“Woman,” p. 271) that the members of the social body shall become so perfectly developed that, “without distinction of sex,” they “shall undertake all functions” of society. ”

“ There is no room in this country for class-hatred. It does not exist outside of the ranks of the Socialists. There is, in fact, more class-hatred shown by the rival factions in the Socialist movement in their squabbles with one another, than there is between employer and employe. Yet, by means of cunning misrepresentation and perversion of facts, all who come under the influence of Socialism—even the children in the Socialist Sunday schools—are made to take this wrong outlook upon life ”

“ If you ever find yourself in such a position, don’t let the soap-boxer place you on the defensive. When you talk about the impracticability of Socialism you put the Socialist just where he doesn’t want to be, and, if you follow up your attack consistently and strenuously, you will have him on the run before you know it. Socialists like to theorize. They like to talk to people who don’t ask for too many details, but they have little liking for the man who demands definite plans and accurate specifications. ”

“ Instead of being a device to promote the cause of Socialism by concentrating the wealth of the nation in the hands of a few [Pg 124] interests, the modern “trust” has become in reality an agency for the diffusion of wealth.
Of course, as you know, John, a corporation—even a “trust”—is owned by those who hold its stock. Every shareholder is a partner in the concern; so, when we find that, instead of being owned by fewer persons, the stock is distributed among increasing thousands of persons, it is difficult to see where there is any evidence of marked concentration of industrial wealth. ”

“ Why, there would be none of these good things of life—no enjoyment, no freedom of any kind—under a system that placed a premium on laziness and saved its highest rewards for the bosses—and that is what Socialism would do! ”

“ If we were doing nothing to improve conditions for the workers and for the relief of the poor, the outlook would be a hopeless one; but, when we realize that, while Socialism itself is doing practically nothing but denouncing and slandering society (where it does not actually oppose our reform measures) , we are working steadily toward the solution of our social problems, we can see good reason to believe that our civilization is far from being the failure it has been pictured. ”

“ It is a beautiful promise, this assurance of Socialism that every worker in the Co-operative Commonwealth will get every penny that is represented in his labor. It is a beautiful promise; but lots of people have made beautiful promises and haven’t kept them. ”

“ You—like all the rest of us—are confronted with the problem of the cost of living, and—like most of us—you wish that you could earn more money. “Is it possible,” you ask, “that I am earning four times as much as I get, and that I am being ‘robbed’ of the greater part of it?”
If you listen to the Socialists you will come to believe that this is just what is happening. A Socialist paper published in Kansas has spent a lot of money to advertise the fact that, when Socialism triumphs and you get what you actually earn, you will be paid $2,000 a year for six hours a day. ”

“ In the first place, the use of the term “wage slave” would naturally lead us to suppose that, under Socialism, men will no longer work for a wage; that they will become their own masters, employing themselves and paying themselves the full product of their labor; in a word, that each will be free with a freedom such as man has never before experienced.
Knowing that this is the plan proposed by many prominent Socialist thinkers, it is somewhat surprising to find publications purporting to represent Socialism still promising the worker a “wage.” ”